NEITHER face powder nor lipstick could hide the wrinkles on the faces of the 13 women dancers, signs of their respective age of more than half a century. The fat collected around their cheeks, necks and stomachs told the same story: they were no longer young.

But they did not concern themselves. They wore green, long-sleeved tops, bright-yellow shawls and red batiks wrapped around the lower halves of their bodies. Enormous chignons decorated wi