PERFORMANCE
CYVASA 2.0 is a collaborative performance work created and performed by Indonesian and diaspora dance artists Juliet Widyasari Burnett and Ishvara Devati, with a music score by Indonesian feminist noise duo Metatesis.
The trans and cis female bodies are dynamic, sacred entities from a speculative future; untethered from patriarchal history and vessels of new mythologies. The organic hardware of these bodies is a portal: continuously upgraded, reprogrammed and reincarnated.
In the world of CYVASA 2.0, ancient Javanese spirituality merges with techno-fantasy aesthetics and glitch distortion. Here, desire is not only sensual but evolutionary; a driving force that transforms the body’s architecture. The body is a liquid machine containing pulsating circuits of water, blood, sweat, hormones and ancestral data; secreting myths and birthing digital deities. New sacred rituals are built from uniquely female and queer codes, burying the past. This is not a stage, but a temple, laboratory and server room, where mythologies are rewritten through the flux of flesh, machine and collective longing.
CONCEPT, CHOREOGRAPHY AND PERFORMANCE Juliet Widyasari Burnett & Ishvara Devati
MUSIC Metatesis (Dyah Isaka + Nadya Hatta)
SET Juliet Widyasari Burnett
PRODUCER Michaela Coventry
PERFORMANCE DATES
Thursday 13th November, 7.30pm
Friday 14th November, 7.30pm
Saturday 15th November, 7.30pm
LOCATION
Temperance Hall, Main Hall
199 Napier Street, South Melbourne
ACCESSIBILITY
Wheelchair accessible
TICKETS
$15 General Admission
$25 Pay a little more
This project has been supported by Performance Space and Critical Path's Experimental Choreographic Residency; the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body; and Temperance Hall.
Juliet Widyasari Burnett and Ishvara Devati are Temperance Hall TEMPER Artists for 2025.
Juliet Widyasari Burnett is an Indonesian-Australian dancer, choreographer, actor and founder-director of A__PART, connecting Indonesian and Australian artists and communities. She was a Senior Artist at The Australian Ballet (2003-2015) and at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Belgium (2016-2022) and has guested with Chunky Move, Dutch National Ballet and West Australian Ballet. Juliet has danced in a vast spectrum of classical and modern repertoire, such as the contemporary works of Pina Bausch, William Forsythe, Akram Khan, Wayne McGregor and Trisha Brown amongst others; and in new creations with several choreographers including Édouard Lock, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Melanie Lane and Stephen Page.
In her choreographic practice, Juliet explores a hybrid of Javanese dance and arts with Western classical and contemporary forms, navigating the confluence of dance, theatre, film and music; all driven by the rich artistic and activist heritage of her Javanese bloodline. Juliet has co-created dance film ‘Letting Blood’ for MONA/Dark Mofo (2016); dance theatre work ‘in situ’ (2019) for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen; solo works ‘Roro Xeno' (2025) for MONA/HOTA at Bleach* Festival and ‘Ketok, Ora Ketok' (2025) for ALOW Gallery; and music clips for Melbourne band Cool Explosions (2018) and Icelandic artist Gyda Valtysdottir (2021).
Juliet was named the winner of the Arts and Culture category of the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians Awards 2021, Most Outstanding Dancer in Dance Europe 2020 for Édouard Lock’s ‘The Heart of August…continued’ and Standout Solo Performance in Portland Dance Film Festival 2021 for Sam Asaert’s short film ‘Exaltation’.
As an actor, Juliet has starred in and choreographed for renowned Indonesian director Garin Nugroho’s film ‘Samsara’ (2024); and Concertgebouw Amsterdam’s Dutch musical play ‘Petroesjka’ (2019).
Ishvara Devati is a Jakarta-based dance artist focused on interdisciplinary exploration in the performing arts. Her practice traces trans woman identity, transhumanism, and the intersections of technology and bodily transformation, through the lenses of queer ecology and postcolonial feminism that unsettle prevailing understandings of nature, the body, and history. The body appears as a living archive and a site of negotiation; where aesthetics intertwine with critique. Through cross-sensory, cross-medium experiences—dance, performance, film, video art, installation—she invites audiences to sense the body as a cultural-ecological landscape and to cross the boundaries of gender and species.
She has participated in the workshops CP[3] – Dance Nucleus (2024), Feminist Activism Tech Camp – PurpleCode (2024), and Sekolah Pemikiran Perempuan / School of Women’s Thought (2023). Her works have been presented in Indonesia and internationally, including the dance film less than an ounce at Indonesia Bertutur 2024, and the instructional performance Deliberated Weirdness at Festival Avant-Garten, Hamburg (2023), Theater der Welt, Germany (2023), and Theater Spektakel, Switzerland (2023).
Her developing work The Synthetics of Hybrid Beings was presented at the Indonesian Dance Festival 2024. Residencies include Invisible Dance – The Body in Friction, Ahmedabad, India (2023); Farm-Lab Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan (2021); ARTEFACT#11 – Dance Nucleus, Singapore (2024); and Experimental Choreographic Program Residency – Performance Space, Australia (2025) with Juliet Widyasari Burnett. International collaborations include the project Bodies of Care with artists from Germany (2021).
____________________________________________________________
TEMPER is a new program inviting 3 choreographic artists/collaborations to develop and show new choreographic work at Temperance Hall, while in residence on-site in the Apartment Studio.
Bringing experimental, radical art/work/ideas/experiences/research/perspectives/practices/dances from farther afield to share with local audiences at Temperance Hall.
#1 Martin Hansen (Melbourne/Berlin): August
#2 Liz Rosenfeld (Berlin/London): October
#3 Juliet Widyasari Burnett (Gold Coast) and Ishvara Devati (Jakarta): November
TEMPER is supported by Creative Australia, the Australian Government's principal arts investment and advisory body.
Temperance Hall's activities in 2025 are supported by the Neilson Foundation, the City of Port Phillip, the Palais Theatre Community Fund, private donors and the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
Image Credits: Liz Ham