This presentation reflects on an arts practice-based research project investigating the layered body as a living site of memory, cultural knowledge, and choreographic decision-making. Rooted in Minangkabau and Kerinci traditions from West Sumatra, Indonesia, such as plate dance, Tale, lahek, and galanggang, the research asks: What does the body remember, and how are layers of memory, tradition, and experience activated through movement? Through autoethnographic performance and intercultural collaboration, the study explores how traditional movement vocabularies carry sensory, affective, and cultural knowledge across bodies and performance contexts. The first performance, RASO I, examined raso - a Minangkabau concept of affective and intuitive sensing - as a way for the body to reveal and negotiate memory through risk, relation, and presence. The second, RASO II, expands this inquiry into intercultural space, working with Western-trained dancers in a circular galanggang-inspired stage. Documentation and post-performance dialogues reveal moments of friction, negotiation, and resonance when different bodily histories meet, challenging representational modes and opening pathways for decolonial choreographic practice. This presentation argues that choreography functions as a mode of thinking through the body, where memory is not a fixed archive but is continuously activated, negotiated, and transformed through bodily practice. By situating Indonesian embodied knowledge alongside Western embodied cognition theories, this research contributes relational and affective perspectives to discussions of knowledge, embodiment, and choreographic practice, while opening broader questions about mediation and human presence within contemporary technological contexts.

Authors:
Sherli Novalinda, University of Limerick, Ireland

About the Presenter(s)
Sherli Novalinda is currently a PhD researcher in Arts Practice at Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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