IACS Closing Ceremony — Sanggar Lestari

Photo by KJRI Melbourne. Asti, Yana, Mama Ning, Pak Kuncoro Waseso, Mira, Deena, Rohan

Just like that, our Lestari girls have officially completed the Indonesian Arts & Culture Scholarship. They have gained so much knowledge to bring back and teach everyone through our Sanggar, including 2 new incredible dances.

Last night, we were invited by the Indonesian Consulate in Melbourne to celebrate the conclusion of the program. The first event the Indonesian Consulate has held since the pandemic, so there was definitely a little bit of excitement from all of us as we celebrate these small milestones of going back to a somewhat normal life!

The main event was hosted over Zoom from Padang, while we watched and interacted from the Consulate. Each participating art school had a representative perform live for everyone to see. Rohan, the only participant from Australia who was not part of Sanggar Lestari performed a contemporary Javanese dance he learned through Sanggar Kinanti in Yogyakarta, while our beautiful friend Tamara Mladenovic from Greece performed Tari Puspawresti taught by Sanggar Seni Semarandana in Bali.

Once the formalities were over, we all enjoyed a lovely Indonesian dinner together and concluded the night with a spontaneous jam session, singing songs including Ayo Mama & Cucak Rowo, and then of course finished off with some line dancing and some TikTok fun to cool off.

It was lovely to finally have the chance to meet our new Consul General, Pak Kuncoro Waseso, and see familiar faces at the consulate on both a formal and casual setting. Looking forward to creating more memories together in the future.