Devi Dja

Devi Dja was born Misria Dja on August 1, 1914, in Sentul, a part of Sidoagung, the village in Godean, Sleman Regency, to Adiredjo from The Royal Palace of Yogyakarta, and Sriami from Sumenep.[1] Some sources such as United States Immigration Service document stated her birthplace as Pandaan, a city in East Java near 60 km from south part of Surabaya, and the naturalization form in the United States in 1953 recorded Kali Baru, a district in Banyuwangi, as her birthplace which Dja also mentioned during her interview with Saeroen in the Pemandangan newspaper, in 1934.[2] She had a younger sister, Sutijem, who later married Ali Joego and became an actress using the stage name Dewi Kusna.[3] Her paternal grandfather, Satiran, was a soldier of the royal palace of Yogyakarta who fled after the rebellion of the followers of Prince Suryegalaga.[1] In order to escape the rebellion, Satiran along with his family moved, busking, from village to village in East Java where Adiredjo later met with Sriami in Surabaya, and married her there.[1] During Sriami's pregnancy, she often argued with her father-in-law and later moved away with her husband to give birth to Dja.[2] Satiran sent Dja to live with her paternal grandparents and she was often sick as a toddler. Her birth name was changed by her grandfather to Soetidjah, a common practice in Javanese culture.[1][2]

Dja's childhood was spent moving from village to village with her grandparents. At the age of five, she moved to Pandaan to live with her parent and didn't receive a proper education.[1][2] She later returned to live with her grandparents in Kali Baru and with the help of an Arab man and Dutch women, Dja's grandfather established a troupe called Stambul Pak Adi in the 1920s.[4] This troupe was popular in Bondowoso, Jember, and Banyuwangi.[1] Dja later joined the troupe as a dancer and singer using the stage name Soetidjah (or Dja).[1]

Dja in a studio photograph in c. 1930

During her time with her grandfather's troupe in Rogojampi, Banyuwangi, in early 1927, she met Willy A. Piedro (born Willy Klimanoff), a Penang-born actor of Russian descent, who was the lead of The Malay Opera Dardanella troupe and often saw her perform.[1][5] He invited Dja to joined in his troupe after seeing her singing Kopi Susu on stage, and later proposed marriage with the help of the head of Rogojampi District and Dja's grandfather.[1][5] Dja's first performance with Dardanella was in Makassar on December 2, 1927, when she was 13 years old in a play titled Boenga Roos dari Serang by Hoo Tjong Leon as an extra, where she portrayed Hoo's daughter, Kiem Nio.[6] They continued to perform in Ambon, Ternate, and Manado, in March 1928.[6] After their last performance in Surabaya, they travelled to Banjarmasin and performed The Sheik of Arabia which resulted in many positive reviews from the Bintang Borneo newspaper, and continued to perform in Balikpapan and Samarinda from May until August 1928.[7] They returned to Java Island in October 1928 and began their tour again in Surabaya where Dja took a break from performance.[8] On October 30, she appeared in The Rose of Serang in Semarang as Hoo's daughter and received a positive response from Djawa-Tengah newspaper.[9] On November 24, Dja recorded songs she sang for Beka, a vinyl record company from Germany.[10] Her song "Toekang Satee" which she sang along with Miss Riboet II was released by Behn, Meyer & Co.[11]

In 1930, Dja, who often appeared in plays as an extra, was asked to replace the lead actress who had fallen ill.[12] The Sin Jit Po daily newspaper praised her performance and described the extra as gorgeous which resulted in attention and applause from public.[13] By 1931 she was appearing prominently in theatrical posters as "Miss Dja: Dardanella’s Sweet Seventeen". By this time the Dardanella was booming, with the troupe grown to 150 members, and made its first trip outside Indonesia, to Singapore. In the mid-1930s it travelled to China and played in several cities. This was followed with a visit to Rangoon and India, where, in May 1937, Dja danced in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru, the future prime minister. Continuing west, with the number of members declining along the way, Dardanella performed in Turkey, Paris, Morocco and Germany. Dja became known as the Pavlova of the Orient, after the ballerina, Anna Pavlova.[14]

The remaining players were on the last voyage of the SS Rotterdam out of the Netherlands in 1939. In New York City they changed their name to "Devi Dja's Bali and Java Cultural Dancers", performing in restaurants in the city. Following the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of Indonesia by Japanese troops, they were unable to return home and were effectively stuck in the US. At the end of the war, she and her husband opened a nightclub in Chicago, called the Sarong Room, but it burned down in 1946. Klimanoff died in Chicago in 1952.[14][15][16]

In 1947, Dja met Sutan Sjahrir who, as prime minister, was leading the Indonesian delegation to the United Nations in New York to fight for international recognition of Indonesia's independence. He introduced her to the American public as an ambassador for Indonesian culture, resulting in her name becoming increasingly known in the US. In 1951, she became an American citizen, believed to be the first Indonesian woman to be naturalized. This might have been done in order to protect her from possible deportation in light of her friendship with the Indonesian communist, Lari Bogk, who had been in the US supporting Indonesian seamen and port workers who were refusing to load supplies destined for the Dutch East Indies colonial government. After her husband's death she continued to perform, together with the few remaining Dardanella group members.[14][15][17]

She married Acee Blue Eagle, a Native American artist, but the marriage was short-lived, allegedly because he did not like her continuing to interact with Indonesians in America. After they divorced, she moved to Los Angeles, but failed to break into the movie industry, obtaining only a few bit parts, despite establishing friendships with stars such as Greta Garbo, Carry Cooper, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, and Bing Crosby. Her main difficulty in getting employment was her poor spoken English. She then married an Indonesian, Ali Assan, six years her junior, with whom she had a daughter, Ratna Assan in 1954. Again, the marriage was short-lived.[14][15]

Dja continued to work in California, performing and teaching Indonesian dancing, for a time having her own dance school in the Vermont area of Los Angeles. She was represented by the agent Raymond D. Bowman who specialized in “world music” and jazz performers. When the first Indonesia president, Sukarno, visited the US she met with him and on a visit to Indonesia she was received by him at the State Palace. He tried to persuade her to give up her US citizenship, but this would have made work in the US difficult. In 1960 she teamed up with modern dance pioneer, Ruth St. Denis, to present the first Balinese shadow puppet play in the United States.[14]