Promoting Tari Merak
Dancer and senior choreographer Irawati Durban with some 50 of her students and thousands of other dancers appeared in a colossal performance of the Merak Dance. Part of a campaign to promote the dance as intangible cultural heritage to UNESCO.
Anwar Siswadi
September 26, 2022
TRADITIONAL gamelan music rang out. Some 50 dancers followed the lead of Irawati Durban, 79. They donned bright costumes akin to the colors of the merak or peacock bird, and bird-shaped crowns. Irawati and her students glided rapidly forward as they fluttered the cloth wings attached to their shoulders.
With graceful movements they did their dance, flitting their heads first to left, then to right, their arms and bodies moving in rhythm to the g
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