Ancient 'reog' dance retains popularity in E. Java

By Text and photos by Widyarto

SURABAYA (JP): A reog mask dance is not only an art performance but also a historical legacy now taking on a strong role in nurturing the religiosity and sociopolitical awareness of the Javanese communities.

In a reog dance, the plot of the dance story is fully intertwined with a harmonious blend of movement, sound and costume.

One may wonder how a reog dance can survive the passing ages without being affected by changes. Then, how can it earn a respectable place in the trove of arts and culture in East Java in particular and in Indonesia in general?

To the agrarian people of East Java, it is a matter of pride to be able to present a traditional reog dance performance as part of the harvest rites or in individual or community parties and celebrations of national days.

Obviously, reog is not only a tourist attraction or an item on a list of programs to be performed by international arts-exchange delegations. As a folk art, reog is part of the traditional sociocultural aspect of the East Javanese way of life.

"It is understood that Ponorogo was the birth place of reog," said Mbah Gembong, chairman of 57-strong Reog Singoyudo art troupe of Surabaya, East Java.

"Now the reog dance has found a fertile soil for development all over Java. It is even popular outside Java. In an annual reog festival in Ponorogo there are always some reog groups from places in Sumatra and Kalimantan, for example."

"This means that reog can transcend geographical and cultural borders," he said, adding that reog could be accepted by all.

According to statistics at the East Java tourist office, there are 153 reog groups all over the province. The tourist service sends these groups abroad in turn. Singoyudo, for example, went on its 10-month European tour in 1992.

"Despite the economic crisis and no matter how bad conditions may be, the custom should survive. Reog and related customs are our source of livelihood," Gembong added. "Hundreds of years of colonial rule could not kill reog. I believe it will survive till the end of time."

Patriotism

Demang (village headman) Ki Ageng Kutu Suryongalam laid the foundations for reog in the middle of the 14th century, then under the name of Barongan.

This ruler of Wangker was descended from a royal Balinese family and was originally called I Ketut Suryongalam. He adopted the Balinese Barongan dance with the head of a tiger and the feathers of a peacock as the main dance features.

Initially, he created this dance only as a means to disseminate information to and establish communication with the masses.

Suryongalam used the dance as a satire of the Majapahit King, Prabu Brawijaya V (Arya Angkawijaya). The scene depicting the act of setting foot on the tiger's head (the dancer of Dhadhak Merak) and that of carrying the Merak dancer (a woman dancer: Djatilan) on the shoulders symbolize the subjugation of the king by the queen.

In this dance, Suryongalam trained his Wangker soldiers (jadhuk) in the skills of warfare and invulnerability to weapons. It was also through reog that Hinduism developed and spread to East Java. And at this point Wangker was in turmoil.

Meanwhile, as the Demak sultanate under Raden Patah became stronger and encompassed the coastal area of Java, the rule of Majapahit became weaker and weaker. Wangker seized this opportunity to withdraw itself from the sphere of Majapahit's rule.

To put an end to this rebellion, the next Majapahit king, Prabu Brawijaya V (Bre Kertabumi), sent his son, Bathoro Katong, to Wangker in 1468. Thanks to the help of Ki Ageng Mirah, a Moslem preacher, and Seloadji, the rebellion in Wangker was put down.

This rebellion was quashed not through war or violence. but on the basis of peace and a brotherly approach. This nonviolence yielded fruits only scores of years later.

Bathoro Katong then wedded Niken Sulastri, Suryongalam's daughter. Afterwards, Suryongalam, Bathoro Katong, Ki Ageng Mirah and Seloadji jointly became wise rulers of Wangker as from 1482. They improved their people's knowledge of rice cultivation. The outcome of their hard work is still evident today: Wangker (Ponorogo) is one of the national rice granaries.

The Barongan art developed rapidly. It was thanks to Ki Ageng Mirah and Bathoro Katong that the Barongan art was later known as the reog dance. (Etymological reog comes from Arabic riyoqun, which means a human's awareness of, faith and submission to God.)

The riyoqun art was also effective in the propagation of Islam, particularly in Wangker and in Java in general. The close proximity between Wangker and the Demak sultanate strengthened the position of Islam in Java and made it a religion very close to the people.

In later centuries, the reog or riyoqun art continued to be an effective means to attract people and disseminate information. That's why the Dutch colonial administration considered the reog dance a manifestation of rebellion against colonialism in Indonesia. It was also for this reason that in 350 years of Dutch colonialism, the reog dance was banned.

However, local people defied this ban and continued, albeit in a guerrilla-like manner, to perform this dance in certain celebrations.

As a political propaganda means, the reog dance was heavily used in the 1960s. The communists (the Indonesian Communist Party) made use of this folk dance as part of their agitprop. During these years, the reog dance was simply a legitimate propaganda tool for the Nasakon (Nationalism, Religion and Communism) ideology then obtaining, especially with the establishment of the Ponorogo Reog Front (BRP) in 1965. Obviously BRP's establishment in support of the Nasakom ideology robbed the reog dance of its religious significance.

Then, in order to restore the reog dance to its original position as a cultural legacy, a drive was in full swing in 1968 to purify the reog dance art, cleansing it of all elements smacking of ideological propaganda.

In this context, the Indonesian Nationalist Party, for example, set up the National Reog Front (BREN). Ulemas and teachers of Islam also worked hard to give back to the reog dance is religious substance. They set up, for example, Religious Reog Art (CAKRA) and Islamic Reog Art (KRIS).

However, as arts and culture can never be completely free from political interests no matter who the power holders are, the reog dance is also in the same boat. The annual festival of reog or Grebeg Suro, is an example in this respect. Then in the New Order era, yellow -- the color of the ruling Functional Group (Golkar) -- was required to be added to black and red, the originally dominant colors of the costumes of reog dancers.

Nevertheless, a reog dance remains a traditional work of art. Its passage through centuries, often not smoothly, has proven its staying power as an attractive folk art form with its dancers, props, choreography, costume symbolization and the color of its music.

The strength of a reog dance also lies in a combination of dynamic movement and the color of its music as this blend is in tune with the present global culture which idolizes speed and high intensity.

In other words, a reog dance tells the story of a process. It is the portrait of a sociocultural and religious structure of human civilization depicting peaceful coexistence as reflected in the struggle put up by Bathoro Katong. A certainty indeed.