A lengger but contemporary

Otniel

Tasman

The power of the poetic body and artistic practice

My name is Otniel Tasman, a young choreographer, performing artist, and dance festival producer hailing from the Banyumas region of Central Java, Indonesia.

For 13 years, I have immersed myself in the exploration of gender conflict through the traditional Banyumas Lengger dance — a ritual performed by male dancers in female attire, embodying our indigenous symbols of fertility, spirituality, and cosmology.

While Western anthropologists label Lengger as a “queer performance” due to its male practitioners expressing femininity, I firmly resist this categorization. We possess our own native history and perception of gender, distinct from contemporary social-political identities. Using Lengger, I leverage the traditional cosmological understanding of the dance to deconstruct ideologies, challenge norms, and explore messages of bodily freedom and justice.

Using Lengger, I leverage the traditional cosmological understanding of the dance to deconstruct ideologies, challenge norms, and explore messages of bodily freedom and justice.

Through discourse and experimentation, I aim to foster a more inclusive understanding of queerness and tradition, preserving the legacy of the Lengger tradition. Through my creation journey within which I have developed contemporary performances, made dance films, produced a Lengger festival, and written a book about Lengger, I have received new values resulting from the exploration process, not only regarding the forms of the artworks, but also through my thought process, academic knowledge, and collisions with other forms of media.