Indonesian court dance, a purportedly pure and untouched tradition, is famed through out the world for its sublime calm and stillness. Yet this unyieldingly peaceful surface conceals a history of political repression and mass killing. In The dance that makes you vanish, an examination of the relationship between female dancers and the Indonesia state since 1965, Rachmi Diyah Larasati describes the Suharto regime's dual-edged strategy: persecuting and killing performers perceived as communist or left-leaning while simultaneously producing and deploying replicas" as idealized representatives of Indonesia's cultural elegance and composure in bowing to autocratic rule."