01216nas a2200109   4500000000100000008004100001100001300042245009100055300001000146520092800156020002201084       2012                            d1 aMohd Nor00aDancing women performing men: reiterating gender in Makyong s dance of menghadap rebab  a48-543 aMak Yong, the Malaysian dance theatre proclaimed in 2006 as a  Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Mankind  by UNESCO, is a play of gender disguises. Women play the main character roles of king and prince, queen and palace maids, while men play comedic and villain roles. They dance, sing, act, and mime as the dance theatre innovates, improvises and reciprocates scenes of a chosen story. The lead character role is performed by a female. Her entry into the performance space in full male costume and royal regalia accompanied by an entourage of female characters legitimized through her presiding role as an indispensable dancer in a sacred dance of salutation to the bowed spike fiddle ensemble. This paper discusses the effect of reiterated acting and dancing, through a performative narrative that is sustained by a tacit agreement to sustain discrete gender roles that obscure a person s normal gender.  a978-80-7331-236-7