The Thai Dance Concert

We attended a student dance concert at the university this week.  The professor for this group knew we were coming and translated the program into English for us.  We appreciated that very much.

The performance consisted of eight parts.

1.    Rabam Ching (Thai classical dance)  According to the program “Ching is a small cymbal which plays an important role as a conductor in Thai classical music ensemble.”

2.    Sung Ponglang (a folk dance in northeastern Thailand) Sung means dance and ponglang is a wooden xylophone used for folk music in the northeastern part of Thailand. 

3.    Rabam Ronre (a folk dance in southern Thailand) Ronre means “mining mineral”. This dance was choreographed with the mining process in mind.

4.    Traditional music and dance lecture by Dr. Takako Iwasawa This short talk was in Japanese, but the slides had Japanese and English, so I could kind of follow what she was talking about.

5.    Indian music  This was the same group of Indian musicians we saw perform earlier in the semester.

6.    Fon Phang (a folk dance in northern Thailand) This dance, the candle dance) is performed as an offering dance for Buddha and was danced by Dr. Iwasawa.

7.    Rabam Lopburi (the ancient dance) Lopburi is one of the pre-historical religious art forms in Thailand.  This piece was “choreographed in the 1960’s in order to transmit such a cultural diversity in pre-historical ages of Thailand to the next generation.”

8.    Finale – a special collaboration between Thai dance and Indian music.

We enjoyed the concert and were happy to learn more about Thailand and its dances.