THE meeting was seamless. Two classical dances, bedaya from the Yogyakarta Palace and noh, an ancient Japanese dance, merged into one. They seemed to absorb one another, their energies intact. It was an osmosis that found a singular essence. The dancers performed bedaya movements while wearing white noh masks and swinging noh fans with their hands.

That evening, gamelan (traditional Javanese orchestra) music blended with the slow, hoar