A lecture for the 26th International Biennial Conference of ICKL

Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University4th August 2009

Assoc.Prof.CHOMMANAD KIJKHUN,Ph.D.

The development of Thai classical dance scholarship in connection with the new

innovation

SPAFA

(Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts)

“A Dictionary/Database of Classical Ballet Terminology” ,

written by Prof. Rhonda Ryman

Waterloo University, Canada

1st research project :

The development of Thai Dance Vocabulary Notation with Labanotation

2nd research project :

The Essence of Thai Male Classical Dance

The methodologies and the outputs of applying Labanotation to Thai dance

research

1st research project : The development of Thai Dance Vocabulary Notation with Labanotation

One general problem in Thai dance circle is that the used dance vocabularies are

understood only within peer groups

Those from other groups are not accepted although many of these various groups got

basic trainings on the similar songs or dance repertoires,

and possibly from same masters.

AS a result, there is neither standard nor common practice in naming similar patterns of posturing or movement.

Some sharing dance vocabularies feature different postures, while some similar postures are differently named.

Ironically, graduates from the same schools use dissimilar vocabularies, resulting extreme confusion

No one can be authorized enough to finalize any agreeable vocabularies to be widely used.

ObjectiveTo develop Thai classical dance

vocabularies based on Labanotation.To survey the efficiency on the

application of Labanotation in noting Thai classical dance vocabularies.

To survey opinion of students and relating people in Thai classical dance circle towards such application of Labanotation.

Labanotation is a new innovation in Thailand which can be applied

in noting Thai classical dance vocabularies in an universal and

standard way.

Methodology1. Surveying dance vocabularies

appeared and explained in documents, including interviewing dance artists, senior masters and experts

2. Creating a checklist by arranging the given dance vocabularies into alphabetical order.

Methodology3. Inviting 30 experts in teaching and/or

performing Thai classical dance to sort only the vocabularies danced by male characters.

Bringing the relevant vocabularies from the second stage to be arranged in the order of their frequent.

Methodology4. Bringing the given list from the third

stage to a group of five experts and ask them to select the final list

These choices in the final list were brought for the following stage of studying

Methodology5. Inviting four masters who are honored as National Artist and one Distinguished Person on culture to dance the screened vocabularies.

Recording those dances in VTR, and noting them with Labanotation system.

Methodology6. Forwarding those noted vacabularies to :

- Prof. Rhonda Ryman- Prof. Jang Ling Ling

to check the accuracy of notations, especially whether they correctly follow the Labanotation system.

Methodology7. Organizing a workshop seminar on the topic

“Dance Vocabularies : Labanotation”

The given results are analyzed by statistical methods by means of

- frequency-based - percentile-based calculation.

The research results are not presented here because I would like to discuss only the topic of applying Labanotation into the studies of Thai classical dance, but they are available in the distributed papers.

2nd research project : The Essence of Thai Male Classical Dance

Thai classical dance….has been conventionally taught by means of

copying what one sees.has been transcended by this approach for

generations.

Amidst the current streams of cultural and artistic copying, exchanges, diversifying and hybridization, unless sufficient and proper archiving, the essence of Thai classical dance would become unrecognized and eventually extinct.

ObjectiveTo explore the componentsTo analyze the structureTo study the grammar of the essence of male

character (tua-phra) of court dance drama.

The research frameworkEngages synthesizing concepts and

theories which relate to the significance of the essence of Thai male character dance.

Eastern and Western theoretical approaches to analyze body movements.

Three standard sets of standard etudes among Thai classical dance trainings (pleng-char, pleng-raew, pleng-mae bot)

The research frameworkLinguistics theory.Visual arts theory and the law of

naturalistic commonalities.Interviewing the experts.The analysis is based on the subjects of

pleng-char, pleng-raew and pleng-mae bot, transcended by court style dancers.

MethodologyIn reaching my objective, I explored several stages

of experimentations as following :

Step 1 : studied the basic concept of AnatomyStep 2 : Explored 108 ‘garana’ movements of the god Siva as a guideline in analyzing the components and structure of Thai dance essence.

The failure of this project was from ambiguously interpreting

the written dance patterns to be physical movement without any

record of bridging movement from one pattern to the following.

MethodologyStep 3 : adapted some symbols to stand for human body parts and movements

Verbal explanation is not enough to correctly illustrate the true postures and movements

MethodologyStep 4 :

tried creating a model in analyzing body movement

chart-based approach cannot feature details of body movement.

MethodologyStep 5 : working out

applied Labanotation by noting pleng char and pleng raew movementsaccording to the tempo of ‘ta-pone’,

a major percussion instrument

ta-pone

The outputs from both researches I have mentioned have been written and

extensively discussed in these two books here.

my summarized versions available in the document which I gave to you.

Please have a look.

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THANK YOU

CHOMMANAD KIJKHUN

THANK YOU

CHOMMANAD KIJKHUN