PSTK ITB Staged Reog Ponorogo Folk Dance
By Amelia Rahma Faustina
Editor Amelia Rahma Faustina
Arief Budi Sanjaya (Mechanical Engineering 2010), Chairman of the Committee Tanggap Warsa 41 said that, through this show, PSTK aims to convey the sacredness of Reog Ponorogo to ITB civitas academics and to the local society. "We wish to change the common stigma that PSTK is exclusively intended for Central Java-nese," Arief said.
Reog Ponorogo narrates the competition between Klana Swandana and Singo Barong to win the heart of Dewi Sanggalangit, a beautiful daughter of the famous King Kediri, making her one of them's wife. Dewi Sanggalangit said that she would marry someone who was able to present 144 pairs of horses with their riders soldiers, find a two-headed animal, and stage an art performance that had never been shown before.
At the end of the battle, Klana defeated Singo Barong Swandana. With his whip, Klana Swandana managed to make Singo Barong and his peacock pet, blend with one another, forming a two-headed animal. Having the head of both a lion and a peacock, the animal fulfilled the prerequisite given by Dewi Sanggalangit. An art performance that had never been shown before is believed to be the Reog Ponorogo.
Sardenianto (Chemical Engineering 2010), the Director, successfully packaged the story with the charming folkdance. The karawitan (Javanese traditional music - ed) was played throughout the show. The audience did not get bored because the story inserted some hilarious scenes, making laughters erupted. Some of the jokes were the three royal officials appeared to use the modern English language instead of Java language, Patih Pujangganom's playful character, and various other scenes. The players also invited the audience to interact with them as if to invite conversation, and even took one audience to go up onto the stage.
"Hopefully this event can be one of the vanguard of national cultural preservation, as well as facilitates the cultural teaching to stimulate the birth of young, dedicated ambasador to preserve Indonesian culture," said Getbogi Hikmawan (Natural Physics 2009), Chairman of PSTK ITB 2011/2012.