Student performing artists and faculty from Cornell were featured at a series of programs on Indonesian culture this month at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

"The Allure of Refinement -- Music and Dance of Indonesia" included films, dance, lectures and concerts celebrating Indonesian music and dance and the Claire Holt Collection of Indonesian Dance and Related Arts. Cornell's Modern Indonesia Project donated the Holt collection to the New York Public Library's Jerome Kern Dance Division in 1978.

On Dec. 7, Kaja McGowan, associate professor of the history of art, was a discussant at a screening of films documenting classical and Javanese dance, and spoke about the Holt collection in an evening lecture, "Art in Indonesia: Continuities and Change" -- from the title of Holt's 1967 book, published by Cornell University Press.

The Holt collection includes thousands of photographs and films of Indonesian costumes, dance movements and theatrical performances, photographed or collected by scholar Claire Holt on her travels to the region in the 1930s, 1950s and late 1960s. Holt first studied dance in Indonesia in 1930, and later served as a research assistant to Margaret Mead and worked for the Office of Strategic Services and the U.S. State Department. She came to Cornell in the 1950s and founded the Modern Indonesia Project here in 1962.

Jumay Chu, a senior lecturer in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance, and six dancers presented "Elisions" Dec. 9 at the library.

Chu choreographed modern dances in combination with, and as counterpoint to, traditional and contemporary music from Indonesia, performed by Christopher Miller, music; Allen Fogelsanger, theatre, film and dance; and the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble. The program of new dance work offered an American perspective on Indonesian dance and its significance for Western aesthetics of the body in performance.

"Six beautiful dancers -- including majors in dance, French, American studies, chemistry, economics, linguistics, and graduate work in applied mathematics -- explored the rich harmonies and the open spaces in the music," Chu said.

Miller, director of the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble, lectured Dec. 10 on "The Sound of Movement: Gamelan and Vocal Accompaniment to Javanese Dance." He gave an overview of the different categories of dance in Java and explained how gamelan music reinforces various characterizations in dance -- including drumming patterns that animate displays of feminine grace and knightly courage, and the vocal lines accompanying sacred court dances.

The Cornell Gamelan Ensemble also performed a concert of traditional Javanese music Dec. 12 with Gamelan Kusuma Laras, an ensemble of American and Indonesian players based in New York City.

Information: http://www.nypl.org/research/calendar/prog/lpa/plistlpa2.cfm.