Astri Kusuma Wardani

Production Management and Dancer

Astri Kusuma Wardani

(Production Management and Dancer)

Graduated from the dance department of the Indonesian Institutes of the Arts (ISI) Surakarta 2008. Astri study Javanese Court dance since she was 8 years old in her native village Wonosobo. She study Javanese dance, improvisation and choreography with Suprapto Suryodarmo, Rusini, Dedy Luthan, Eko Supriyanto, S. Pamardi and all of her teacher at the SMKI (the Indonesian High School for the Arts) and at STSI/ISI Surakarta.

Her dance and choreography was presenting on around Indonesia such as Malang Arts Festival, Sukuh temple in Surakarta and Opera Jawa film directed by Garin Nugroho. She danced and choreographed “Offering” and “Plain Kertas” at the Dance Box for the Osaka Performing Arts Messe festival and Osaka Sort Play festival in Osaka, and Okayama Open Theatre Festival Japan July-August 2006. The Iron Bed, directed by Garin Nugroho at the Theatre Spectakel Zurich Switzerland and the Indonesian Dance Festival, Jakarta Indonesia.

She is one of the futures of Javanese Court dance in her generation who create the atmosphere combining the philosophy of the classical dance with a new vocabulary of new contemporary dance. Astri’s first appearing and serious creative work with Peter Sellars is the deepest commitment of her new transformation to continue creating the creative works in dance and performance while simultaneously keeping the tradition grow and a live.

Most recently she was danced and choreographed for Peter Sellars and John Adams new Opera “Flowering Tree” which Premiere on Peter Sellars’s New Crowned Hope Festival for the 250 years Mozart Festival in Viena Austria October-November 2006, then at the Berlin Philharmonic with Sir Simon Ratle December 2006, the San Francisco Symphony Orcestra USA March 2007, Barbican London UK August 2007 and will at Tokyo Opera House Japan (November 2008), Walz Disney Hall Los Angeles and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York Summer 2009. Astri Joined Solo Dance Studio in 2003.