Nanik was born in Jogyakarta, Java, Indonesia, from several generations of renowned musicians and dancers. She began her training in Javanese dance as a young girl at the esteemed Pakualaman court at the Kepatihan (prime minister-minister advance). She continued her dance training at Gajah Mada University then enrolled Akademi Seni Tari Indonesia (ASTI), a prestigious dance academy. While excelling in Javanese dance, she also began to learn the dance style of the neighboring island of Bali. Soon she became well-known as the only Javanese woman to perform leading roles in a Balinese dance company.
Throughout her career, Nanik has toured the world, collaborated with innovative artists, and taught and mentored myriad artists and dancers. Her versatility and command of both Javanese and Balinese dance allowed her opportunities to tour throughout Asia, Europe, and North and South America. In fact, she, along with her husband and father, is instrumental in bringing Javanese and Balinese music and dance to every major city in the US and Canada.
Nanik’s choreography incorporates both traditional Javanese and Balinese movements as well as western movements due to her training at CalArts in ballet and modern dance. Evidence of these amalgamation of styles are visible in her many collaborations. In Hunger, a collaboration with electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick, Javanese and Balinese hand movements can be seen set against a backdrop of electronic and digital media. This work, albeit an untraditional marriage of genres, was truly revolutionary and elicited much acclaim. Nanik has also collaborated with Linda Sohl-Ellison in Nusantara, a production that combined tap dance with elements of Balinese music and dance. Other works include collaborations with the Beijing Opera, Ricky Martin, the Latin American pop singer, Marion Scott Dance Company, the video artist Ed Emshwiller, and filmmaker Larry Reed; to name a few.
Although Nanik has extensively performed works of a modern nature, she has not forgotten her traditional artistic roots and still enjoys performing more pure Balinese/Javanese movements. In Ramayana, she directed the Calarts Burat Wangi dancers and was a principal performer in a traditional Balinese dance drama. Also, for the annual CalArts World Music Festival, Nanik typically choreographs, directs, and performs traditional Balinese and Javanese dances. Recently Nanik performed at Smithsonian institution, Washington DC as part of “Performing Indonesia,” a Conference and Festival of Music, Dance and Drama.
Nanik’s footprint not only in Balinese and Javanese dance, but in dance in general, has been cast through a storied career of performance and most importantly teaching. Her teachings have brought her from workshops in Los Angeles to Canada to Mexico, to Singapore. Her faculty appointments at CalArts, Loyola Marymount, San Jose State University, University of Washington, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Pomona College, the World Music Center in Berkeley, and other venues have resulted in the development of numerous dancers and artists in her more than 30 years tenure. The impact of her teachings is both resounding and immeasurable in that her students take in what they learn, and are most successful when they make it their own. To that end, Nanik’s impact is significant when one considers the thousands of students she has taught and mentored, yet difficult to assess though hints of her aesthetics come through in her students as well as her students’ students. No matter, she will continue to pursue her passions in choreography, in performance, and in teaching and mentoring future generations of dancers and artists.
