The dance describe Klono Sewandono the king of Ponorogo

on his journey to Kediri to seek the hands of Princess

Songgo Langit. On his journey he was attacked by a vicious
monster called Singa Barong, a mythical lion with peacock
on its head. Historians trace the origin of Reog Ponorogo as
the satire on the incompetence of Majapahit rulers during
the end of the empire. It describe the innate Ponorogo
liberty and its opposition on centralist Majapahit rule. The
lion represent the king of Majapahit while the peafowl
represent the queen, it was suggested that the king was
incompetent and always being controlled by his queen. The
beautiful, youthful and almost effeminate horsemen describe
the Majapahit cavalry that have lost their manliness. [2]

In society, there is another version about the origin of the

reog. History of Reog Arts began the revolt of Ki Ageng
ticks, a man of Majapahit Kingdom in the 15th century,
where at that time the Majapahit Kingdom under the rule of
the King of Kertabhumi Bhre last Majapahit Kingdom. Ki
Ageng Kutu wrath against the corrupt behavior of his King,
he saw that the powers of the Majapahit Kingdom soon will
end. He left the Kingdom and founded a College of martial
arts in hopes of raising seeds which can be held as under.
Aware that the army was not able to compete with the
Majapahit army Political messages of Ki Ageng Kutu were
submitted through the performances of Reog. Performance
of Reog utilized Ki Ageng Kutu to build resistance to the
Royal Society. In art performances Reog was shown the
head of a lion-shaped mask called "Singo Barong", Kings of
the forest that became a symbol of Kertabumi, and it
plugged up to peacock feathers to resemble a giant fan that
symbolises the strong influence of the governing Chinese
pronunciation of peers over all. Jatilan, played by a group of
dancers a gemblak horses-shaped became a symbol of the
power of the Kingdom of Majapahit into comparison contrast
with the power of warok. Red clown mask that became the
symbol for Ki Ageng Kutu, alone and support the weight of
the mask singo barong that reaches over 50 kg using only
his teeth. And finally reog Ki Ageng Kutu attacking the
college, causing kertabumi an uprising by warok quickly
resolve, and forbidden to continue teaching will warok. But
the disciples Ki Ageng Kutu remain continue secretly.
However, artistry reog itself is allowed to stage
performances because has become popular among the
people but the storyline having a groove in which the
characters of new added folktale ponorogo kelono
sewondono, namely dewi songgolangit, and sri genthayu. [3]

Reog Ponorogo dancers traditionally performed in

a trance state. Reog Ponorogo displays the
traditional Kejawen Javanese spiritual teaching. Next to
physical requirement, the dancersespecially the Warok
required to follow strict rules, rituals and exercises, both
physical and spiritual. One of the requirement is abstinence,
warok is prohibited to indulged and involved in sexual
relationship with women, yet having sex with boy age eight
to fifteen is allowed. The boy lover is called Gemblak and
usually kept by Warok in their household under the
agreement and compensation to the boy's family. Warok can
be married with a woman as their wive, but they may kept a
gemblak too. This led to Warok-Gemblakan relationship that
similar to pederastic tradition of ancient Greece. Anybody
who is in touch with the traditional way of life in Ponorogo,
knows that there are these older men called warok who,
instead of having sex with their wives, have sex with
younger boys.[4] What Warok and Gemblak did
is homosexual act, yet they never identify themself as
homosexuals.

Many Warok and Gemblak were massacred by Islamic

groups during the anti-communist Indonesian killings of
1965-1966, their heads placed on pikes for public display.
Today the Warok-Gemblakan practice is discouraged by
local religious authorities and being shunned through public
moral opposition. As the result today Reog Ponorogo
performance rarely features Gemblak boys to perform as
Jatil horsemen, their position were replaced by girls.
Although today this practice might probably still survived
and done in discreet manner.