Reog Ponorogo

One of the original dance from Indonesian culture is Reog Ponorogo. Ponorogo is a small town which is about 4 hours journey by car from the city of Surabaya, the capital of East Java, where Ponorogo included in the East Java region. Reog Ponorogo is the dominant dance with mystical and mysticism.

Reog Ponorogo usually performed in several events such as weddings, circumcision and the National days. Reog Ponorogo consists of a series of 2 to 3 dances opening. The first dance is usually performed by brave men 6 - 8 with black clothes, with faces painted red. These dancers represent the brave lion figure. Next is a dance performed by a 6 - 8 Jaran Kepang. In traditional reog, dancers are usually played by male dancers who dressed woman. This dance is called dance lesson braids, which should be distinguished from other dances are lumping horse dance. Other opening dance if there is usually a dance by a little boy who brought the funny scenes.

After the opening dance finished, the new core scenes show the contents of which depend on the conditions under which art is displayed reog. If marriage is associated with the display is love scene.

The scene in the art reog usually do not follow a neat scenario. Here there is always interaction between the player and the puppeteer (usually the leader of the group) and sometimes with the audience. Sometimes a player's performances can be replaced by another player when the player is tired. The more overlooked in the performance of Reog Ponorogo art is to give satisfaction to the audience.

The final scene is a lion barong, where the actors wore masks shaped head of a lion with a crown made of peacock feathers. Weight mask can reach 50-60 kg. This heavy mask carried by the dancers with their teeth. The ability to bring this mask than obtained with heavy exercise, is also believed to be obtained with such a spiritual exercise of fasting and asceticism.