NusPARC Grantees

Indra Utama.  As a graduate student in the doctoral programme in Dance at the Cultural Centre of the University of Malaya, Indra Utama exhibited his skill and artistry as a performer of West Sumatran silat (martial arts) and silat-derived movements in contemporary dance at the 1st Symposium of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) Study Group on Performing Arts of Southeast Asia. This Symposium was held at the Republic Polytechnic in Singapore in June 2010. Indra performed demonstrations of silat and silat-related dance movements during the Symposium’s panels on silat, and he also taught special workshops on the topic for Singaporean school-going children.

Wayland Quintero. Wayland Quintero recently embarked on PhD studies at the University of Malaya-Cultural Centre. Born in the Philippines and raised in Hawaii, he brings more than twenty years of theatre and dance experience to his current educational endeavors. In New York City, he performed extensively and earned an MFA from New York University-Tisch School of the Arts.  Returning to Hawaii in 2007, he is a founding member of the Mahalohalo Ensemble, a group of artist-scholars performing and researching dances with music of gong chime cultures, and exploring ethnicity, hybridity, gender, and representation. At the 2nd Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Performing Arts of Southeast Asia his paper is entitled "Not Muslim Music and Dance! Filipino American Responses to 'Muslim' and Islamophobia".

Desiree Quintero. Desiree A. Quintero is a dancer and co-founder of the Mahalohalo Ensemble, a performance group focusing on the music and dances of the Southern Philippines. She is also a student of Balinese dance, having studied with Ida Ayu Ari Candrawati and I Nyoman Sumandhi, she has performed with Gamelan Dharmaswara (NY) and Gamelan Segara Madu (HI), and is a former board member of the Hawai’i Gamelan Society. Desiree was a graduate student in the Dance Ethnology programme at the University of Hawai’i at the time of the PASEA Symposium, and is now a graduate student at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her paper presentation at the 2nd Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Performing Arts of Southast Asia is "Costuming the  Moro: Filipino Americans as Shifters in the Re-Siting of Filipino-ness".

Dr. Toh Lai Chee. Toh Lai Chee obtained her MA in Ethnomusicology and her PhD in Music Education from the Universiti Sains Malaysia with a dissertation entitled Teaching and Learning of Music through Multiple Intelligences. Lai Chee is currently attached to the Music Department (Penang campus) of the Malaysian Teachers’ Training Institute. She teaches music, gamelan and traditional music appreciation to primary school children under the Teaching School programme organized by the Institute. Her research focuses on the teaching and learning of music, using the theory of multiple intelligences. At the 2nd Symposium of the ICTM performing arts Study Group she presents a paper entitled "Transformation in the Teaching and Learning of Boria at Institutes and Schools in Penang."

Arhamuddin Ali, from South Sulawesi, Indonesia completed his undergraduate studies at Makassar State University (UNM) in 2011, and in 2012 began MA studies in the Graduate Program of ISI Yogyakarta. He has participated in musical performances since 2000, including the Makassar Art Moment (2008 and 2009), I Lagaligo Forum of Hasanuddin University of Makassar (2010), Solo International Contemporary Ethnic Music (2010), I Lagaligo Dancing Drama in Palopo i(2011), and Unordinary Music Forum in Solo (2012). In his presentation at PASEA 2014 he examines the acculturation of music and instruments when the Sultan Hamengku Bowono II, strengthened his military with modern weapons and added European instruments to the ‘kirab’ warrior music, providing inspiration and courage to his warriors. His paper is entitled 'THe "Kirab" Warrior of Kraton Jogjjakarta Music Acculturation'.

Firmansah, from South Sulawesi, Indonesia, completed his undergraduate study in the art and design faculty of Makassar State University (UNM) in 2011. His experiences include violin instructor in Violin Pizzicato Mini School of Makassar (2007-2011), Assistant Lecturer in the Art Studio music course at UNM (2010), member of Sara' Tallua Event Organizer in Makassar (2008- present) and traditional arts activist of South Sulawesi. He is currently a student in the Graduate Programme at the Indonesian Institute of  the Arts (ISI) Yogyakarta. His paper in the 2014 PASEA symposium looks at the case of the South Sulawesi traditional instrument kacaping and the performer Karsin Hati who is trying to play the kacaping in new ways as a strategy to deal with the influence of popular music in society. The paper presented at the PASEA Symposium is entitled "Kitoka as Cultural Strategy of South Sulawesi People'.

Yohannes Don Bosko Bakok, originally from Wangka, Flores, Indonesia, taught liturgical music at the Catholic University of Widya Mandira in Kupang, NTT during 2006-2008. He completed his undergraduate study at the faculty of performing arts at ISI Yogyakarta in 2011, and also participated in the sasando music festival in Kupang, NTT. At present he assists choirs and is church organist, participates in arts seminars nationwide such as National Student Seminar of FSP ISI Yogyakarta (2010, functioning as chairman of the committee) and the National Seminar and Workshop of FSP ISI Yogyakarta (2011, as chairman of the committee). In 2014 he is a student in the Graduate Program of ISI Yogyakarta. His paper in the PASEA 2014 symposium explores the situation of East Timorese peoples living in West Timor and their ceremony kore metan, a traditional ceremony to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of family members. His paper is 'Acculturated Music in Kore Metan Ceremony Among the East Timorese'.

Regina Angelica S. Bautista is a cum laude graduate of the Dance programme at the University of the Philippines. Trained in ballet with accreditations from the Australian Conservatoire of Ballet and the Royal Academy of Dance, she was a company scholar of the Ballet Philippines (BP), and a member of its junior company from 2011-14.  She has written dance reviews, served as research assistant to Basilio Esteban Villanruz for his three-volume book Walking Through, and was a contributor to the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Encyclopedia of Philippine Art. Regina is currently studying in the Dept. of Dance at York University, Toronto, Canada. Her paper at the PASEA 2016 symposium examined ways in which dance can be an agent of embodied decolonisation, through analysis of modern ballet by Philippine choreographer Agnes Locsin. Regina's paper at PASEA 2016 is ‘Indigeneity as a Means of Decolonizing: Agnes Locsin’s Filipino neo-ethnic ballet, Encantada’.

Jose R. Taton, Jr. is an instructor at Oton National High School in Iloilo. He finished his MA degree in Ethnomusicology at the Philippine Women’s University. Currently, he is pursuing doctoral studies in music majoring in Ethnomusicology at PWU. His research interests include festival studies and organology. At present, he is undertaking research on vocal music genres among the Panay Bukidnon people in central Panay Island. In his paper for the 2016 PASEA symposium, Taton focuses on the municipality of Oton, Iloilo, and the annual Katagman Festival which is celebrated as an attempt to situate the town’s history on the contemporary stage through musical, dance and theatre performances, and in the process re-frame and re-contextualise the music as “indigenous” which involves the creation of instruments, production of musical material, and performance of local musical styles. Taton’s paper at PASEA 2016 is ‘Performing the 'Indigenous': Music-Making in the Katagman Festival in Iloilo, Philippines’.

Amiel Kim Quan Capitan is currently a part-time faculty at the Philippine Women’s University—School of Music where he is also doing his Master of Arts degree in ethnomusicology. At the 2016 PASEA symposium, Capitan’s paper concerned one of the largest settlements of the Negrito group called Ayta Magbukun as found in the small town of Abucay located in the province of Bataan, Philippines. Aside from the innate historical significance of Abucay that puts the town on the list of places to visit in the province, it is home to a well-known choir group called “Koro Bangkal Magbikin.” The choir consists of young and talented Ayta Magbukun and is under the management of the local tourism council of the province. His paper at PASEA 2016 is Dis/Re-integration of Traditional Vocal Genres: Cultural Tourism and the Ayta Magbukun “KoroBangkal-Magbikin,” in Bataan, Philippines.

Firmansah, from South Sulawesi, Indonesia, completed his undergraduate study in the art and design faculty of Makassar State University (UNM) in 2011. His background includes violin instructor in Violin Pizzicato Mini School of Makassar (2007-2011), Assistant Lecturer in Art Studio music course at UNM (2010), member of Sara' Tallua Event Organizer in Makassar (2008- present) and traditional arts activist of South Sulawesi. In 2015 he completed graduate school studies in the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) Yogyakarta, Indonesia. For the 2016 PASEA Symposium, Firmansah focuses on the many efforts of nobility in Sulawesi to preserve and legitimise their power domination through arts and religiosity. His paper at PASEA  is entitled ‘The Performance Of Gendrang La Bobo In South Sulawesi As Symbolic Violence In Arts and Religiosity’.

Deeba Eleena Mohammad Aslom is a postgraduate student at the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Heritage of Universiti Malaysia Sabah. During her undergraduate years, she conducted research for her thesis regarding change and continuity in the traditional marriage of the Kadazan from Maang Village, Penampang, Sabah. Currently, she is continuing her research on the topic for her Master of Arts degree. Continuing her studies in cultural aspects of the Brunei peoples, Eleena’s paper focused on the continuity of the gambus musical instrument as a form of material culture and intangible cultural heritage among Brunei communities living in Kampung Seri Serbang Bongawan in Papar, Sabah. At PASEA 2016 Deeba’s paper is entitled ‘The Continuity of ‘Gambus’ as Material Culture.’

Wayland Quintero was born in Sagada, Mountain Province, northern Philippines and raised in Hawaii. As a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Malaya Cultural Centre, his research focused on performative traditions in Sagada where he conducted fieldwork from 2013 to 2015. He earned his MFA degree in Dance from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. As a multidisciplinary artist, he has over twenty-five years of theatre and dance experience as well as arts administrative work background in New York City and Hawaii and editing projects in Malaysia. In the PASEA 2016 symposium his paper focused on highland Sagada in the northern Philippines where the Dap-ay is a physical structure made of stone and concrete material, and where the performance of rites and communal gatherings take place. The title of his paper is ‘Performing mengangsa in the Dap-ay: connoting religiosity in highland Sagada’.

Desiree A. Quintero, in 2016 a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnochoreology at the University of Malaya Cultural Centre, also served as a Research Assistant in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies/Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences from 2011 to2015. Her background in dance encompasses ballet, tap, and jazz, followed by Philippine folkdance and Balinese dance. Desiree’s interest in pangalay as a dance form is the current focus of her research as it is practised among the Suluk people in Sabah, Malaysia with fieldwork carried out from 2013 to 2015.  Pangalay, a dancing of conventional hand and arm motifs that are individually nuanced, is simultaneously part of and separate from religious celebrations, and is seen as maglami-lami or “merry-making”. Desiree’s paper at PASEA 2016 is entitled ‘Maglami-lami: Punctuating Religious Festivity Among the Suluk in Sabah’.

Bryan Levina Viray teaches at the Department of Speech Communication and Theater Arts in University of the Philippines Diliman. Through an Erasmus Mundus full scholarship (2013-2015), he earned an International MA in Dance Knowledge, Practice, and Heritage - Choreomundus from the Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Trondheim, Norway, and with coordinating institutions. His research on Tubong/Putong was presented at the local and international conferences in 2015, and in the 2016 PASEA Symposium his paper focuses on the Putong group known as Juniors in Gasan Marinduque, Philippines, the barangay Bangbang. The title of his paper is ‘Novelty and Pakana as Logic of Practice in a Coronation Ritual?’.

Yustina Devi Ardhiani is a student in the Graduate School of the Indonesian Institute of Arts (ISI) Yogyakarta and works as a lecturer in the Religious and Cultural Studies Programme, University of Sanata Dharma in Yogkykarta. In 2014 she served as a member of an editorial team (with Barbara Hatley and G. Budi Subanar SJ) on the book "Seni Pertunjukan Indonesia Pasca Orde Baru", which was published by Sanata Dharma University. As part of her dissertation research on the performing arts group known as Sahita, Yustina's research observes that performing artists on stage, whether consciously or unconsciously, tend to promote pubic images of an ideal and attractive female body. Sahita, however, as a group of performers from Surakarta, Indonesia, satirically features images of elderly women as their strength in art. Yustina's paper at PASEA 2016 is 'Sahita: The Female Body as Satire in Performing Arts'.

Nur Izzati Jamalludin is a postgraduate student in ethnomusicology at Kings College London under the Universiti Teknologi MARA Young Lecturer Scheme. In 2014 she presented a paper titled “The Transformation of the Wang Tepus, Kedah Mek Mulung Performance Structure: From a Village Bangsal to Urban Concert Halls” at the 3rd Symposium of the ICTM Study Group for PASEA in Bali based on her Master’s thesis entitled  "Concertising Mek Mulung: Ensuring the continuity of a Kedah dance-drama." Nur Izzati obtained her Bachelor's degree in music majoring in performance and pedagogy from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang in 2009.

Hamdan bin Adnan is a clarinetist, educator, performer, music producer and has taught at the Garden International School, MARA Institute of Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, the National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage of Malaysia (ASWARA) and Management and Science University. Has performed in the United States, Europe, and China and various performances locally in both the classical, popular, and fusion music genres and has written music for radio and television broadcast. He sits on the Department of Skills Development ‘Skills Program Accreditation’ panel. His research focuses on sustainability of wayang kulit music through the use of digital technology. He is currently doing research on the digital restoration of wayang kulit music for use in future syllabi for teaching composition using digital technology and for use in his studies for the MA in music composition at the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. 

Premalatha Thiagarajan is a Senior Lecturer and the Head of Dance Department at the Cultural Centre in University of Malaya. She received her Ph.D in Critical Dance Studies from the University of California Riverside, USA, in 2012. Through her doctoral research, she pioneered the research in Indian dance practices in Malaysia. She published her research as book chapters and journal articles. Her recent research interest crosses national boundaries and focuses on the circulation of Indian classical dances regionally between India, Malaysia, and Singapore. Last year, she received a two-year grant from the University of Malaya, which centres on dance therapy for breast cancer survivors. Besides, a dance scholar and an academician, she is also a vivid dance practitioner. She is the founder of Premalayaa Performing Arts, a company that specialises in Indian classical dance and music. She is also the artistic director of KESUMA, Traditional Dance Ensemble, and UMa Contemporary Dance performance wing of the Dance Department, University of Malaya. 

Yohannes Don Basko Bakok, originally from Wangka, Flores, Indonesia, taught liturgical music at the Catholic University of Widya Mandira in Kupang, NTT during 2006-2008. He completed his undergraduate study at the faculty of performing arts at ISI Yogyakarta in 2011. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of the Philippines Diliman, College of Music. He presented his paper at the 45th ICTM world conference in July 2019 entitled “Mr. Djoli Aray and his Effort in Developing Minahasa KolintangMusic Instrument”. As a presentation at the world conference in a session on transforming musical instruments, the focus of his paper was on the development and dissemination of the wooden kulintang, a typical musical instrument from Minahasa, Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. 

Eva Rapoport is a Ph.D. candidate at the College of Religious Studies, Mahidol University (Thailand), she is researching the role and place of jathilan trance performances in the present-day Javanese culture, specifically focusing her attention on the Special Region of Yogyakarta.  Along with her current academic research, Eva is working on photography projects depicting traditional performing arts and celebratory activities in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. A selection of her works entitled Facing Trance in Indonesia was exhibited in the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre in February 2017. Eva’s paper presented at the 45th ICTM World Conference was ‘Spirits in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Online Representation of Traditional Javanese Trance Dance.’ This paper focused on the form ‘jathilan’ in the Special Region of Yogyakarta in which the performance of this trance dance is meant to entertain the public by demonstration of altered states of consciousness, and to look at the means performing groups use to establish their online presence and to achieve interconnectedness among the enthusiasts of this dance form.

Rachel Ong Shu Ying recently completed the MA in Performing Arts (Music) at the University of Malaya (Cultural Centre), Malaysia in the field of Ethnomusicology. Her MA thesis detailed the musical culture of a minority ethnic group, the Peranakan Chinese community of Melaka in relation to the construction of their ethnic identity in the plural society of Malaysia. Currently, she is still conducting research with the Peranakan community in Melaka, exploring the social history of the performing groups. At the 45th world conference of the ICTM (2019) Rachel discussed the dance and dance music of the Peranakan community in Malacca and how it reflects the gendered socio-cultural pattern of the community in which elder women tend to predominate. Her paper was entitled “Expressing Matriarchy: A Reading of Peranakan Dance in Melaka, Malaysia”. 

Onny Nur Pratama, from Pangkalpinang, Bangka, Belitung Islands, Indonesia, is a researcher and practitioner of dambus (a plucked lute) on the island of Bangka. His research on the dambus musical instrument started in 2011 and continues to the present, writing a thesis in 2015 with research on the intramusical study of thedambus and the differences between dambus and gambus (oud) about playing technique, song, musical style, musical instrument organology and history.  Currently his research focus is on the extramusical studies of the dambus related to cultural aspects of the Bangka community. Onny completed his Masters at the Department of Music Studies at the Yogyakarta Postgraduate Institute of Indonesian Arts in 2019, and presented his paper on the dambus musical instrument at the 45th ICTM world conference in July 2019.  His paper was entitled “DAMBUS: A Study of Phenomenology Examining the Meaning of Deer Animal Representation on Dambus Musical Instruments on Bangka Island.”

Raudhatul Jannah is a researcher, writer, and ethnomusicologist who is interested in popular and traditional music. She is a student from Aceh who lives in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Ethnomusicology at the University of North Sumatra, and now is continuing her Master's in Performing Arts and Visual Arts Studies at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. In her thesis she will research about Gayo regional pop music and its relation to gender. At the 45th ICTM World Conference 2019, she presented a paper titled "Space Contest and Nostalgic Memory of Peddler Music." Focusing on street peddlers and use of their own choice of music to attract customers as found in the Klebengan area of Yogyakarta, this paper analysed the differences of social classes and space struggle among the peddlers according to the kind of music used by the peddlers and how it influenced the sales and the marketing culture of the peddlers.