Showtime at AUA

Some of you know that one of the things that had been keeping me busy all through June, July and the first half of August was that I had taken up learning Thai traditional dance. You can’t really be that surprised given my current interest in all things Thai as well as my long-standing interest in dance as an art form. Let us not forget my love of being the center of attention, heh heh. As part of AUA’s method to teach you about the culture associated with language, the Thai Department occasionally offers special “interest” courses that go beyond the normal instruction of language – even though the teaching method is untraditional in the first place. These include anything from Thai massage, Muay Thai (kick-boxing), cooking and even yoga. The most recent of these, obviously, was the Thai Dance class. When I learned that it was going to be offered, I was thrilled. I mean, how many Fulbrighters get a chance to learn about something beyond their areas of interest?

One of my Fulbright colleagues, Lawrence, down in Trang province in the South of Thailand is researching ethnomusicology, so he gets to experience lots of traditional dance and music. See the map below:


Right, you’re like “ethno-what?” It means the study of music in its cultural context or from an anthropological point of view. Still lost? Basically, ethnomusicology seeks to explain how music is a product of culture and in turn, how culture affects music. The point is that you can learn something about a people via their music. Much like you can study a culture or society and draw certain conclusions by analyzing their literature, popular media, history, religion or politics. At least, that’s my understanding of it. Anyhow, what is even more exciting is that Lawrence gets to learn about the traditions specific to the border culture region he is based out of – meaning anything from Malay to Thai or even Mon, I think. So it’s a very complex project that is rich with various traditions. Here I am with a boring ‘ol focus on economics. I mean, sheesh, who got the short end of the stick here? I get to spend my time in libraries and chasing people who are doing their best to dodge my attempts to interview them and Lawrence gets to go watch shows and talk to dancers and musicians. Granted, I don’t know too much about some of the challenges that he faces in his research or even in a more broad sense, his field; I still think his subject matter is offers a fabulous opportunity to interact and experience the rich culture present in Thailand.

So after two months of so of ten hours of Thai Dance a week, we were ready to strut our stuff for everybody to see. We performed a type of dance called “serng.” It comes from the Northeastern Region of Thailand, more commonly known as Isaan. The map below highlights the provinces considered part of Isaan.


I invited my friends Mai and Sarah as well as the Executive Director and Program Officer of Fulbright Thailand to the show. They surprised me by bringing along a group of scholars here on various Fulbright programs. When we finished our performance, I was presented with traditional Thai flower garlands often presented to favored performers. What’s better, they had money attached to them!





Roses from Mai -- she's so sweet ~




Gosh, I felt so loved =)…probably because nobody else got them! Heh heh. The teachers added their own bit to the dance portion of the program by performing a very well known play about love, politics and betrayal – things that are near and dear to Thais. All in all, the show was a smashing success and the students were able to experience something new in lieu of sitting in class all day.




Some of the performers and I celebrated by going out to dinner together. I only realized halfway through that all of them happen to be Japanese! Except of course, for me and my faithful supporters Mai and Sarah: