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seduced by orchids at chiang mai flower festival

2/28/2017

THAILAND FESTIVALS

Thailand is world-renowned for its festival culture. There are longstanding cultural events include Songkran Festival (National water splashing ritual to celebrate the new year), Phi Ta Khon (Mask ghost festival Isaan culture in the Northeast), and Yi Peng Festival (Lantern releasing even in Chiang Mai). The country does such a fabulous job at bringing crowds together to eat and share the beauty of the Thai culture, Chiang Mai Flower festival focuses on this natural beautiful through a showcase of the regions finest orchids. Thais and tourists to flock to "The Rose of the North" for a lush display of colorful floats, gardens, and cultural events showcasing the country’s most beautiful flowers. My sister Christina, a Hawaiian resident, joined my along for the ride up to this weekend of flower power. Here is quick look at my week in Chiang Mai:

THE PARADE

The vibe felt very hometown. It wasn't overly former or commercialized. Tourists and locals lined up along the sidewalks, but we were able to walk into the middle of the street to take a good photo as the float went by. The dancers and participants were incredibly patient and stopped along their route to take pictures with peace-signing tourists. We were tempted to walk into the street and followed the trend during a full stop. Parents followed their kids, and partners followed their significant others wiping their sweat and feeding cold water to the beauty queens and kings frying in the Thailand sun. Floats are prepared in just days before the festival, since the fresh flowers need to be at their peek for performance.

THE PARK

Chiang Mai transformed Nong Buak Haad Public Park into an Instagrammers heaven. Christina and I couldn't fight our Asian impulses for selfies. There was even an orchid contest! The top ten were on display for the us flower fans. The crowd packed shoulder to shoulder, but we managed to find our Kodak moments along the way. The festival was not shy about color and quantity. I spent many spring weekends visiting the Philadelphia flower show, but this was another level. Despite the crowds, we were able to find a moment for our photo op.

THE PERFORMANCE

The major performance was an evening of cultural dances specific to the north. I had gotten a taste of this at a Thai Tourism Festival in Bangkok, but I was excited to see Northern dances in the north. The audience was almost exclusively locals, possible friends, family, and community members supporting the young performers on stage. It took me back to my Philippine-American community in Central Pennsylvania. Tourists came and went, but we were the only ones who stayed the whole evening. The audiences were attentive, and the dancers were dedicated. I could see the hand and arm movements I've been studying with Kru Nid in Bangkok. The dancers gave it there all in each step, with a big smile on their faces. It felt like it was a mask. The costumes and dancers were indeed "beautiful," but I was not moved or emotionally impacted. This is a common feeling among my Thai artists friends. These dances are the foundation for all performance in Thailand, but it feels empty. Why don't you judge for yourself! Here is a short youtube clip of the highlights.

FOR YOUR INFO...

The Chiang Mai Flower Festival takes place every first weekend of February. Here are a few sites that helped me during my stay.

www.festivalsofthailand.com/http://www.festivalsofthailand.com/
https://www.tourismthailand.org/
http://chiangmaibest.com/chiang-mai-flower-festival/

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"beauty" training in thai classical dance

2/20/2017

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A MEMORY
One of my earliest memories is from 1991 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I am little girl sitting on a wooden dance floor in a hotel ballroom. My father wears a colorful costume with his bare chest exposed while swinging a golden wooden sword, as my aunties dressed in shiny lame head to toe, twisting and turning fans with their wrists moving at rapid speed behind him. The sounds of the kulingtang gongs blare on our boombox, long strong bamboos strike the ground in rhythm, and I smell the lumpia my tita prepared as our post rehearsal snack. I think to myself, “One day, that will be me.”

Culture dance is a big part of my identity as an artist. Although I do not partake in it now as a theater director, I spend about 13 years performing cultural dances with the Philippine American Association of Central Pennsylvania. These experiences were essential in making me the Philippine American artist I am today. Performing cultural dances in our Philippine community celebrated our culture in America.

THE FORM
Every country has their own relationship with their cultural performance traditions, and I want to understand it in Thailand. Is it has precious and beloved as my own culture's? I soon learned that it is present in tourism, but nonexistent in everyday culture. Thai Classical Dance exists in two forms: royal and folk. It is mostly known for its royal dances created to entertain the royal court with its elaborate lush costumes, stylized costumes, and pageantry. Different moves and images represent different emotions and feelings. It becomes a language of storytelling, rather than creativity or emotional feeling. The emotion is the precision of each movement. I embarked on my journey to attempt this precision and understand the roots of Thai all Thai performance. In order for me to truly understand form, I must experience it in my own body.

LESSONS
I began lessons with Kru Nid at RumPuree in Bangkok. Kru literally means “teacher,” so I’ve seen this name for many professors and instructors I’ve met in the art world. She is a woman in her 70’s who appears to be a sweet and soft spoken, but after spending one session with her, she quickly revealed her strict and rigorous side. Each session consists of the first 15 minutes of stretching fingers and limbs to painful hyperextension. Each lesson, she tests me to see if I have been practicing at home. She often uses the word “Beautiful!” to complement me. This word is the basis of all Thai Classical Dance.

The lesson continues into learning a routine that focuses on repetitive isolated hand and arm movements while walking in a simple circular formation. It honestly took me three lessons to learn this first warm-up dance. I have pretty good hand and foot coordination, but this was very difficult and painful. She stretched my body in unnatural ways, and the angles created by my fingers and limbs had to be very exact. It’s similar to the game of patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. Overall I like studying Thai Classical Dance. It feels like Tai Chi or Yoga. In the moment, it feels relaxing and calming. At the end, I am exhausted and sore.

Thai Classical Dancers from Silom Village

THE REALITY

Many of my Thai friends were required to study Thai classical dance as children. It was a way of preserving the Thai culture. Most people leave and and forget about it, but some continue to pursue it professionally. My feeling is that a lot of Thais reject this traditional form, because they have no relationship to, nor do they really understand why they are doing it. Maybe the why has become, "for entertainment" or "for the tourists." The form may be beautiful for photos, but it lacks emotional depth or any conversation around the characters, stories, emotions. I find myself google the moves and music, hoping a scholar has written something that will help me understand what I am doing. As you can see from the photo above, I am one of two students studying with Kru Nid, and I can see her enthusiasm when I show her my excitement in getting a dance correctly. She often asks me, "Do you like this?" I assure yes, of course, but I notice that the bellydancing class next door has 20 times more students than ours. Frankly, it is a dying form and there are few opportunities to learn from the dedicated traditionalists like Kru Nid.

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seduced by orchids at chiang mai flower festival

"beauty" training in thai classical dance

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