Nita Liem

Nita Liem was born in 1962 in Malang, Indonesia. In 1967, she came to the Netherlands as the eldest daughter of a Peranakan Chinese family. After completing her training at the Theater School in Amsterdam, she was first introduced to Javanese dance in 1990 in the Mickery Theater Production Deshima, led by the American-Chinese theater maker Ping Chong. Liem: "I was confronted with the colonial effects in Indonesia. I traveled to Indonesia alone that year and saw Javanese dance in the Kraton of Yogyakarta during a special ceremony for the sultan." ‘Since 1992, I have worked with British theater maker David Greaves to shape the multicultural youth theater group Nultwintig. From 1994 onwards, I regularly incorporated Pencak Silat and Javanese court dance into the training program for young people, alongside hip hop and African dance.’

At the end of 2000, Nita Liem and Bart Deuss founded the dance theater Don't Hit Mama. She began to delve into the various dance sources that attracted her. From 2010 to 2020, this led to her own dance journey as a creator and performer. In 2010, Nita trained with Germaine Acogny (Ecole des Sables, Senegal) and from that moment on, she began ongoing training with Sonja Bloem in Javanese court dance.

In combination with her theater work, this training brings Liem closer to her own source. This practice led to the following dance theater productions (see portfolio): 2010 Hometime Attack, 2015 Poppin' Java, 2016 Asian Persuasion, and 2020 Asian Celebration. After concluding 20 years of Don’t Hit Mama, she continues to work with Bart Deuss at the Asian Persuasion Foundation in their research space LIVING ARCHIVE to transfer and further develop the lines that have been set out over the past 35 years.