ABSTRACT
The present project is significant in its intent to reconsider the ways in which we think about the performance traditions of Maritime Southeast Asia (MSEA) and to problematize the prevailing perspectives. The current study of performance traditions by and large continues a methodology oriented towards the previously mentioned single medium, which can be problematic for Maritime Southeast Asian forms. Central to the rethinking of Maritime Southeast Asia are paradigms we find useful, both established ones and newly emerging ones. Ideally, a paradigm takes into account theory, praxis and practice, categories discussed earlier. The body constitutes a principal site of coherence for dance and music in MSEA. Another aspect of discourse useful for MSEA consists of different kinds of non-semantic verbalization, such as mnemonic devices, utterances during performance and verbal substitutes for instrumental sounds. The inductive process can generate a modus for investigation which acknowledges the inseparability of dance and music in the first instance.
