In July 2018, an earthquake hit Lombok Island, leaving North Lombok heavily damaged. During this time, I was in contact with a local artistic collective called Komunitas Pasir Putih, which operated in a very affected neighborhood, and they told me that they had started a project called art tremor in response. It included many artistic activities: mini-concerts, film screenings, video and drawing workshops.

I was intrigued to explore how Pasir Putih as a community transforms in response to the disaster situation. According to Oka, one of Pasir Putih’s artists, Pasir Putih had not experienced any major earthquakes or humanitarian relief before the 2018 earthquake. One year after the earthquake, Pasir Putih’s activities were responding all to the problems of North Lombok in a post-disaster context. I spent four weeks observing Pasir Putih Camp, Pemenang District in June 2019. In this article, I will focus on Pasir Putih’s use of art as a means of increasing the empowerment of women in a post-disaster situation, and the personal experience of Martini Supiana or Ana.

Ana is an artist from West Pemenang village. Before marrying Gazali (director of Pasir Putih), Ana lived with her parents in Bayan district, an hour’s drive from Pemenang. I mentioned her as “a performer” in this story, but that’s an oversimplification. Ana does many other things at Pasir Putih other than art work. “I am a theater actor, Rudat instructor, farmer, craftsman and playgroup teacher. She spends the first half of the day at school and teaches rudat, a well-known traditional dance in many parts of Indonesia, including Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, West Java and Lampung, in different places later. Ana has been involved in many Rudat rehearsals, preparing several teams to attend a competition when I was in Pasir Putih. Once a week, she also organized a routine class for rude. Through Ana’s story, we can see Rudat as collective performance art can be molded into different functions: from post-earthquake trauma healing activities to increasing women’s participation in the performing arts.

Roudat is adapted from a komidi rudat theatrical performance, “featuring Arab and Persian soldiers”, and a male martial arts group of Muslim tradition. In Lombok, Rudat transformed into a more secular form, while the Muslim theatrical aspect disappeared from the performance.

Some of Pasir Putih’s artists, including Ana, told me that Rudat is strongly linked to Dutch and Japanese colonial history in Indonesia. However, Pasir Putih, as an artistic community in Lombok, has adapted Rudat in a more contemporary form, called Senam Rudat (aerobic training). As Ana said, Pasir Putih tried to “make Rudat viral again,” after the earthquake a year ago. Gazali, as the director of Pasir Putih, was invited to attend a meeting on the Trauma Healing Project by the Ministry of Education and he suggested Rudat be a collective performance activity for the victims of the earthquake. “My husband suggested it on the forum, and he asked someone from a dance community here to help us modify the moves.” Senam Rudat became a regular activity in Pemenang from February 2019, and the activity became part of the art tremor program August 2019 and one month later.

For Ana’s perspectives and experiences in Senam Rudat as a female artist, I joined her in a few Senam Rudat exercises and a contest. I discovered that Senam Rudat as contemporary performance contributes to the reproduction of gendered social relations. The first time I tried to get involved with Senam Rudat It was my second day in Pasir Putih community, and I learned that most of the participants were women from Pemenang district. Some male artists from Pasir Putih encouraged me to join the Senam Rudat exercise in the evening, but they didn’t involve themselves – they just sat and chatted among themselves. Ana was the instructor, standing in front of the group and giving instructions on how the movements should be performed.

Later I found out that Senam RudatWhere Senam in general, is associated with ibu-ibu (middle-aged women). Most women belong to Perempuan Pemenang group, a small community of women in the village of West Pemenang which is also part of the community of Pasir Putih. Ana is also a leader of Perempuan Pemenang. Jaka, a dance community leader in Pemenang sub-district, is widely credited as the person who shaped Rudat in a more contemporary form.

Roudat because a traditional performance is usually performed by male performers. Ana told me that the first time (February 2019) Pasir Putih community played rudat at Bangsal Menggawe festival, organized annually by the Pasir Putih community, the participants were men. Anna invited ibu-ibu to Pemenang to take part in the performance. “They were shy and hesitant to join the performance at that time in the port. I joined the show and invited them. Knowing that more women were joining the performance, other women from the village also wanted to join in. Ana teaches Rudat almost every day of the week because, as she told me when we had lunch together at her house, she taught different groups of women, not only in the village of Pemenang but also in other parts of northern Lombok.

Ana also noticed that women in Pemenang like to do aerobics in their spare time, and some of them were involved in common aerobic activities from other countries such as Zumba. She took the opportunity to present an alternative performance of their local culture. For Ana, the most important thing is that Rudat becomes popular and women are proud to be in the performance. As she said, “I want people here to be proud of having Senam Rudatnot only senam dari luar (aerobics from other countries) and teach it to their children. Because who else can do it? “. The adaptation of Rudat in its contemporary version, Senam Rudatfrom Ana’s perspective, provides opportunities for women in the village to participate.

This year, Ana and the community of Pasir Putih asked for help from the local government to make Senam Rudat part of the commodified local culture in North Lombok. In an informal conversation with Gazali, he said the local government has always said it wants to support Senam Rudat, but never followed by concrete actions. When a group of Pemenang villagers played Senam Rudat during a district-level aerobics competition, people including the local government began to pay attention.

The local government launched a Senam Rudat competition as part of North Lombok dies natalis and Indonesia’s Independence Day celebrations, the first and second week of August. Ana is involved in teaching three different groups: a Pemenang village group, a local women’s organization at the sub-district level and a local women’s group at the district level. Ana herself was also part of a group of artists from the village of Pemenang. She is happy with this feat, and she is even tempted to insert Senam Rudat movements in the march parade for Independence Day.

Ana is not only focused on development Rudat to become more popular, but also advocates for the interests of female participants to Pasir Putih members. For example, when Ana and other artists, including Jaka, experimented to Rudat music, some women found it made them unable to concentrate on the choreography. Ana took this into account and negotiated with Gazali and Jaka to change the music.

As a female entertainer who also has many household responsibilities as well as her kindergarten job, Ana bonded with the women of Pemenang whenever she invited them to join. Rudat and faced challenges or objections. Ana usually said:Biasalah, ibu-ibu Sibuk (I understand the situation, they are busy)”, each time the groups canceled the exercise program or arrived late. Firstly, Senam Rudat appears to be a highly gendered activity since none of Pasir Putih’s male artists participate. On the other hand, developing Rudat in a form of aerobics caught the attention of groups of women in the village of Pemenang and encouraged them to participate.

During my four week stay, I noticed that apart from Senam Rudat, women are invisible in some Pasir Putih activities. Ana is the only female artist and is never included in artist meetings unless the meeting is about senam rudat. As a person who bears the responsibility for Senam Rudat, Ana was to some extent unable to participate in other activities at Pasir Putih, as she was too busy teaching Rudat to different groups of women. For example, after holding an informal class (part of the Kelas Wah program) on alternative development, Ana told me that she wanted to join. “I wanted to join your discussion, but I had to teach Senam Rudat at the same time.”

Even though Pasir Putih artists have often mentioned that Jaka played a big role in inventing Senam Rudat, in practice, it was Ana who mobilized women to perform. not happy to do Senam Rudat For recreation, Ana and a group of women from Pemenang sub-district also prepared to participate in the district-level competition.

By Senam RudatAna played an important role in the transformation Rudat performance in a more contemporary form. Although her form initially functioned as post-earthquake trauma healing, Ana successfully invited more women to participate in Senam Rudat. From Ana’s point of view, inviting more women to participate in Senam Rudat is a feat because Rudat in its traditional form was practiced only by men. Second, she believes that women and mothers have a vital role in preserving culture, because women, she says, “can teach their children to dance Rudat in the future.”