(Courtesy of Chiquita Limer)

Inspiring young dancer Chiquita Limer has found herself falling for Indonesia'€™s traditional dances.

Chiquita had just created a simple, fun piece of choreography for the recent Indonesia Menari flash mob dance event, dedicated to promoting Indonesian culture and tradition.

It was the second Indonesia Menari flash mob being held. The dance event, initiated by Galeri Indonesia Kaya cultural gallery of the Bakti Budaya Djarum Foundation, was held on Nov. 24 at the Grand Indonesia shopping mall in Central Jakarta on Nov. 24.

For Chiquita, joining the epic community-based dancing event as a choreographer for the first time was truly an honor. At the time, she focused more on creating choreography for figure skating.

'€œI had very limited time to choreograph the dance but it'€™s been a fun experience,'€ said the 23-year-old, who earned her bachelor'€™s degree in dance from the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ).

Chiquita said she only had less than a day to ensure her moves suited the music for the flash mob dance.

'€œI got the music in the afternoon and the next day in the early morning I had to tape a tutorial video [of the moves]. The video is already viral now.'€

She said she applied the basic movements of traditional dance to the flash mob choreography.

'€œThe music is a fusion of Minang [West Sumatra], Betawi [Jakarta], Sunda [West Java] and Maluku traditional songs. I incorporated traditional dance movements from those regions,'€ she says.

'€œI also put in some universal movements in dance '€” the choreography is pretty much global, but with a strong flavor of Indonesian traditional dance.'€

In creating the choreography, she found the real challenge was how to create straightforward moves that were easy to follow.

'€œNot only easy to follow for those who aren'€™t familiar with dance, but also dynamic at the same time, so people won'€™t get bored,'€ Chiquita says.

She took the opportunity to create flash mob dance'€™s choreography following a personal project between her and the Djarum Foundation. Her project, an on-ice production entitled '€œIndonesiaku'€ (My Indonesia), was the final assignment for her bachelor'€™s degree.

'€œI wanted to bring my final assignment to a higher level '€” a production that could be enjoyed by the public. So, I created Indonesiaku [My Indonesia] that combined figure skating, dancing, music and theater on ice,'€ she says.

'€œI infused traditional dance moves into the choreography and hired 10 angklung [bamboo orchestra] players,'€ said Chiquita.

And the production, which involved 70 people, earned a record-breaking certificate from the Indonesian Museum of Records (MURI).

As a figure skater, Chiquita won gold medals in the technical, artistic, solo compulsory and footwork categories at the Skate Singapore 2003 event.

Brought up close to the culture of figure skating since the age of seven, Chiquita said she had never shown an interest in traditional dance until she enrolled at the IKJ.

'€œOnce I was in IKJ, I started to fall in love with our traditional dances. My all time favorite dance is tari topeng [mask dance] of Indramayu [West Java] '€” I was personally taught by Wangi Indriya, a student of the [late] Indramayu dance maestro Mimi Rasinah.'€

Living her passion in dance, figure skating and performing arts, Chiquita said that initially her parents didn'€™t give their blessing.

'€œThey were quite surprised when I said I wanted to study at the IKJ. My parents thought that becoming a doctor or lawyer would be better for me. But I never wanted to live my life without my passion,'€ she said. '€œThankfully, my parents are now on my side because I proved myself.'€

In the future, she hoped she could always promote Indonesian traditions to the world throughout her career.

'€œI can perform Indonesian traditional dances on ice, something that is quite rare.'€

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