The word "Amerta" comes from Javanese (with roots in Sanskrit) and is also found in the Indonesian dictionary. It means "immortal" or "eternal," signifying life. One essential characteristic of life is movement.

Joged Amerta, or Amerta Movement, is one of Asia’s many philosophical and cultural expressions. It was developed in the 1970s by the Javanese movement artist Suprapto Suryodarmo, known as Prapto. Amerta Movement emerged from his exploration of free-form movement, Javanese Theravada Buddhism, and the traditional Javanese Sumarah meditation practice, which emphasizes surrender or “letting go.”

“Amerta” is a Javanese word meaning nectar or the elixir of life. Prapto explained that Joged Amerta is rooted in the fundamental movements of daily life—walking, sitting, standing, crawling, lying down, transitioning between these states, and observing children at play.

The movements of Joged Amerta are always intended as a way of greeting others; therefore, movement serves as embodied communication or dialogue. One of the fundamental conditions of dialogue is the recognition and acceptance of the existence of other subjects. In other words, communication can only take place when subjects engage as equals—subject to subject, rather than subject to object.