The Not-so-gentle Makassarese fan dance: Misperformance challenging Indonesian-Australian transnational femininity

© 2016 Discipline of Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Western Australia. ABSTRACT: In the hands of a group of Indonesian female dancers in Perth, Western Australia, a gentle sea breeze or Angin Maimiri was recreated through the use of swaying fans. The Indonesian women's own newly choreographed dance or tari kreasi is based on the Makassarese traditional song of the same name from South Sulawesi. The women had intended to perform the dance in a ‘feminine’ manner with soft graceful movements. Yet, as illustrated in the ethnographic account of mistakes and misinterpretations that happened at the performance, as well as purposeful adaptations by the dancers, ideals of femininity are not simply transferred in a transnational context; they become inadvertently challenged. Angin Mamiri, as danced in an ‘un-feminine’ manner by an Indonesian housewife hobby group, is illustrative of who they are as marriage migrants and their often marginalised position in their diasporic community. This article is inspired by misperformance ethnography [Prendergast 2014, “Misperformance Ethnography.” Applied Theatre Research 2 (1): 77–90] of what is revealed about ideals held by those involved in a performance when mistakes and misinterpretations happen. Using an anthropology of performance approach thus provides a novel analysis at the intersection of migration and gender studies of how gender ideals such as femininity can be challenged through dance performance in a transnational context.