Approaching the Magnetic Power of Femaleness Through Crossgender Dance Performance in Malang, East Java

This chapter draws from the author's book Stunning Males and Powerful Females: Gender and Tradition in East Javanese Dance (2015) and other prior work to present some of the ways performers have expressed and embodied female power in the regency of Malang, East Java, through dance and its accompanying gamelan music. It digs into the intersection of gender, dance performance, and gamelan in Malang, East Java, focusing on the spiritual power of femaleness in cross-gender dancing. Ethnographic encounters with male, female, and transgender (waria) dancers reveal a fluid continuity of gender, including the performance of “female masculinity” and “male femininity” and the “layering” and “revealing” of performed gender roles. Nevertheless, the chapter identifies an “underlying femaleness” in the tayub dances, linking this “magnetic female power” to the ancient Hindu concept of shakti.