UI Doctoral Candidate Nursilah Researches Aesthetic Transformation of Reyog Ponorogo

Doctoral candidate Nursilah from the University of Indonesia has researched the aesthetic transformation of Reyog Ponorogo for her dissertation titled ‘Aesthetic Transformation of Reyog Ponorogo Art in the Creative Process of Three Reyog Groups in the Arena of the National Reyog Ponorogo Festival’. She stated that Reyog Ponorogo is no longer merely performed as a community tradition, but has undergone a transformation into a competitive performing art influenced by judging standards, artistic innovation, and inter-group rivalry. This phenomenon became the focus of Nursilah’s doctoral research from the Literary Studies Programme. She examined the aesthetic changes in Reyog through three groups participating in the National Reyog Ponorogo Festival (FNRP), namely Grup Gajah Manggolo, Grup Kawulo Bantarangin, and Grup Bantarangin Jakarta, during the 2015–2024 period. She said the dissertation reveals that the institutionalisation of the National Reyog Ponorogo Festival has driven significant changes in the creative processes of the artists. It also examines how cultural, social, economic, and symbolic capital are utilised to build creative strategies and compete for a dominant position within the festival arena. During her doctoral promotion in Cultural Sciences, she explained that the qualitative descriptive-interpretative research was conducted through observation, analysis of FNRP performance recordings from 2015–2024, in-depth interviews with judges, committee members, choreographers, and group administrators, as well as documentation studies of official festival literature. The research findings show that the aesthetic transformation of Reyog is realised through a blend of movement techniques, more structured proscenium stage composition management, and changes in dramatic design, such as the use of flashback patterns. All these changes are responses by choreographers to the demands of performance duration and competition judging criteria. The research also found that the National Reyog Ponorogo Festival has become a social arena that reveals inequalities in capital ownership among art groups. Grup Bantarangin Jakarta is considered able to dominate due to substantial economic capital support, enabling spectacular visual performances. Grup Gajah Manggolo relies on cultural capital through an educational system that produces disciplined performance techniques, while Grup Kawulo Bantarangin maintains its existence by prioritising local values, religiosity, and traditional authenticity as its main strength despite financial limitations. According to Nursilah, the dominance of capital in the festival arena also influences changes in the habitus of Reyog performers. Spontaneity, which has long been a hallmark of traditional performances, is gradually adapting to the demands of more measured modern choreography. The dissertation concludes that the aesthetic transformation of Reyog on the festival stage is not solely born from artistic creativity, but is the result of value negotiation, social competition, and the commodification of works in the pursuit of recognition and symbolic power. As a scientific contribution, this research introduces the concept of ‘Modal Rasa’ as a development of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital. This concept explains that locality, traditional bodily instinct, and cultural authenticity remain important forms of capital that hold bargaining value amidst the increasing capitalisation of the art festival industry.