Ngayomi / Shelter Workshop with Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and Ria Soemardjo

Artists Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and Ria Soemardjo will be leading their Ngayomi / Shelter workshop which will be a gentle gathering of movement, rhythm, water, listening and making. This is for people aged 18 and above.

Ngayomi is a Javanese word meaning to shelter, nurture and protect. These workshops invite us to consider shelter not only as a physical place, but as something we create together through care, presence, reciprocity and connection.

Through movement, rhythm, listening, conversation and craft, Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and Ria Soemardjo invite participants into a shared space for slowing down and reconnecting with body, spirit, water, memory and place.

Together, we will explore simple ritual practices grounded in deep listening and receptive harmony. We will work with everyday materials to create handmade vessels and water-based objects, drawing inspiration from shelter, care, animism and the living presence held within the material world.

There is no expectation to perform or create in any particular way. The workshop is an invitation to be curious, to listen, to move gently, to make with others and to allow space for reflection and exchange.

The objects created through these gatherings will continue their journey into Ngayomi / Shelter, a larger processional performance ritual taking place on Sunday 1 November. Carried and installed as part of the procession, the vessels will become part of a shared ceremonial journey of welcome, care and transformation.

🗓️ 11am-12pm. Sunday, 25th of October 2026

📍Chrissie Cotter Gallery. 31A Pidcock St, Camperdown NSW 2050. Find info about access here

✨ This workshop is free however registrations are essential. Please register via this Humanitix webpage.

Make sure that you stick around for an artist talk chaired by HOLDING SPACE curator Vandana Ram and featuring HOLDING SPACE artists: Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal, Catherine Sarah Young, Azarmidokht Elahi & Kylie Colemane. This is happening after Jade and Ria's performance at 12:30-1:15pm. The artist talk is free however registrations are essential. Register here.

This free workshop is part of CuriousWorks' HOLDING SPACE 2026 – Rituals of Reciprocity – Land and Water program. HOLDING SPACE is funded by the NSW Government through the Multicultural NSW COMPACT Program. Our project collaborators are SSI’s Community Refugee Welcome Centre located at Callan Park, Lilyfield, and Community Partners Sydney Opera House. 

For any questions, please email CuriousWorks' HOLDING SPACE Curator Vandana Ram, at vandana@curiousworks.com.au.

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ARTIST BIOS:

Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal is a Javanese Australian director, choreographer, writer and Body–Mind Centering® somatic movement educator whose work traverses contemporary performance, dance theatre and interdisciplinary arts research. Her lineage bridges Australian convict-settler histories with the ceremonial and cosmological lineages of Yogyakarta’s Keraton and the Borobudur temple complex, grounding a practice that moves fluently across cultures, philosophies and embodied knowledge systems.

Internationally trained across the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia, Jade holds a Bachelor of Dance (Miami/NYC), a Master of Choreography (VCA), and completed a Darmasiswa Scholarship at Yogyakarta Arts University. Her rigorously articulated methodology integrates improvisation, somatic embodiment and physical dramaturgy, positioning the body as a site of memory, relation and insight. Working at the nexus of authorship, co-creation and interpretation, she develops intercultural works that are both structurally sophisticated and deeply rooted in lived, sensory intelligence.

Jade has collaborated with leading companies and independent artists including Ria Soemardjo, Kirk Page, Bebe Miller, BodyCartography Project, Chunky Move, Bangarra, Legs on the Wall, Hermes Ensemble and Marrugeku. These partnerships embed her practice within expansive networks of experimental and intercultural performance.

A committed contributor to First Nations partnerships, regional arts leadership, youth dance and community-driven initiatives, Jade plays a significant role in shaping contemporary Asian Australian performance discourse. Her work advances a vision of dance and interdisciplinary art that is inclusive, critically engaged and anchored in embodied, cross-cultural knowledge.

Photo: Kate Holmes

Ria Soemardjo is a Naarm-based musician, vocalist and interdisciplinary collaborator recognised for her evocative sound worlds and her sustained commitment to intercultural exchange. Of Australian Javanese heritage, her distinct, haunting vocal style reflects a deep engagement with Balinese and Javanese gamelan traditions, while her broader practice draws on an exploratory approach to voice, ritual and site-responsive composition.

Equally at home in contemporary performance, theatre, community ritual and experimental sound practice, Ria creates, records and performs music across Australia and Asia. She collaborates widely with independent choreographers, directors and musicians. Frequently working with long-term creative partners such as Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal to craft sonic environments that interweave voice, frame drums, gamelan textures and her hand-crafted clay flutes and drums.

Ria’s works often arise through embodied research and sensitivity to place, developing contemporary performance rituals that respond to natural or urban sites. Recent projects include Ngayomi (with Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal), excerpted at Marrugeku’s Contested Lands forum (2023); processional commissions for Chinatown and the Mission to Seafarers; the guided audio walks Murmuring Lake and Swallow Walk; and Of Frogs (Darebin FUSE 2022), featuring her sculptural sound-objects.

A sought-after collaborator across dance, theatre, community arts and interdisciplinary practice, Ria brings a distinctive sonic presence to projects that explore cultural memory, ecological attunement and the poetics of listening. Together with her collaborators, she continues to expand the role of music within contemporary Asian Australian performance ecologies.

Photo: Max Milne