dance at Dipangkorn

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I wish I could show you our student dancers in action--the camera only captures a small glimpse of their grace and strength. Imagine exotic music (played by our student traditional Thai orchestra) and flowing motion. The costumes are amazing, too, even more fun to watch as they move.
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There's a clear connection between Thai fighting and Thai dancing. The demo above (first for the student body in informal clothes, then later the same day at a fancy hotel for an international audience) shows the rank-and-file soldier-dancers and then the traditional khon re-enactment of royalty fighting for power (for land and the hand of a lovely maiden--great story).

The man in black watching so critically is the dance teacher. Very talented dancer himself and he exacts excellent dancing from his students. He's also the one who sewed the khon dancers into their costumes.

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The smiling blue girls are the youngest students--

note the short hair.

They danced a special dance for me this morning (a surprise for my last week). The shawls and skirts of both costumes flow and move beautifully.