Raga, Irama & Rasa: The Mystical Worlds of Javanese Performing Arts

Gamelan is more than an ensemble of musical instruments – it symbolises a deeply mystical worldview in which performance, structure and movement are understood as outward expressions of an aesthetic and spiritual order.

Across two interactive lectures and a free performance, Vi King Lim and Langen Suka Gamelan Music illuminate the artforms of Javanese gamelan music, dance and costume with objects from the Museum’s World Cultures Indonesian collection. Whether you are an aficionado or a curious newcomer, this series offers an authoritative yet accessible immersion into the inner workings of one of the world’s most complex performing traditions.

Time: Saturday 20 June, 11am - 12pm

Price: Member $16, non-Member $20

Transforming the body through posture, movement and costume in classical Javanese dance.

This talk will delve into the highly codified vocabulary of Javanese dance, with particular attention to the ways character is articulated through choreography - including posture, gesture and movement quality - as well as through costume and make-up. AM collection objects including historical keris, wayang and batik will be used to illuminate this talk.

Time: Saturday 4 July, 11am - 12pm

Price: Member $16, non-Member $20

Melodic layering, cyclical time and the architecture of Javanese gamelan.

Focusing on the musical structure and aesthetic principles of Javanese gamelan, this talk will build on concepts explored in the previous lecture and emphasise the construction of melody within the Javanese concept of irama.

Musicians from Langen Suka will provide live demonstrations on the museum’s bronze gamelan set, illustrating instrumental techniques across gongs and metallophones.

Time: Saturday 11 July, 2 - 3pm

Price: Free, registration required

A free public performance celebrating over 40 years of partnership with the AM

Join us for a free one-hour performance featuring the full ensemble of Langen Suka and classical Javanese dance by Melbourne-based artist Mirasstity Akacia Putri.

Vi King Lim is a leading authority, educator and practitioner of Javanese performing arts in Australia. He has been the Director of Langen Suka since 1997, in which time the group has become Australia’s premier performing gamelan ensemble.

Born in Malaysia and moving to Australia at the age of nine, he studied Javanese gamelan at the University of Sydney where he first joined the university gamelan group, which subsequently became Langen Suka Gamelan Music. He pursued further studies in both gamelan and dance at the esteemed Institut Seni Indonesia (Indonesian Arts Institute) in Surakarta, Central Java.

His works for gamelan and dance include Panji Sekar (1998), Klana Kanyut (1999) and The Banishment of Sekar Taji (2002), which was performed at the Festival of Asian Music and Dance at Sydney Opera House.

Langen Suka is perhaps Australia's premier performing gamelan ensemble. Since the 1980s, the group has been promoting the arts of central Javanese gamelan music and dance in Sydney through performances, demonstrations, workshops, courses and weekly practice sessions. The Javanese words “langen suka” signify a collective of people who happily pursue a common interest in a particular art form.

The Australian Museum (AM) has enjoyed a long partnership with Langen Suka since the group's inception in the 1980s when the AM acquired both a Javanese and Balinese gamelan set specifically for community use in Sydney. Since this time, the AM has supported Langen Suka to care for and use these instruments on long-term loans in what has become one of the longest running museum-community partnerships of its kind in Australia.