Nalitari is an organization dedicated to sharing and spreading the love of dance to all interested in experiencing the magic of movement. One of the co-founders, Yoana, describes their purpose as “tying people together through dance, but not forcing them.” Their goal is to build bridges and give those willing the opportunity to cross them.
This opens doorways to allow people of all parts of life, regardless of physical and/or mental challenges to participate in movement. Members are free to explore their limits and discover things about themselves they never knew before.
Nadia, who’s in her second year of high school, first joined Nalitari in August of 2017. Her first dance performance was in LIP (Lembaga Indonesia Perancis/Institut Francais Indonesia) . She says she likes to dance because she likes to make movements, and in Nalitari she finds a lot of friends. She finds happiness in dancing, and by dancing and making movements, it keeps her healthy. Her favourite performance was an exchange event in June where she performed in a group with her friends.
Nadia’s first encountered Nalitari was through the founder of an inclusive fine art community Nadia is a part of in Yogyakarta called, Perspektif. The founder of said community told Nadia’s mother about Nalitari and now she is more social and outgoing.
As Nadia’s mom explains, “Nadia has social disorder, she’s not actively interactive. This community enables Nadia to have interactions with her friends and other people. Nalitari makes Nadia less ignorance. In Nalitari she was taught to know other people through touch, and the stare, and since then there’s a lot of progress in Nadia.
The reason why the community is a perfect place for Nadia is because the community is very open and inclusive–it can be joined by whoever the person is no matter what condition she/he has. In Nalitari she is guided by the other members. Even though she tend to be individual, other members (during the dance) will hug, and touch her. It brings a lot of progress into positive direction. It affects her in daily life.
Before she joined Nalitari she’s ignorance and only with her own the whole time before. Before her experience in Nalitari, she didn’t know that she needs someone to socialize. For example in the school, during the break time, she doesn’t have the intention to start conversation or to play with her friends, she will directly run into me [her mom].”
nalitari.org 