Festival of Folk Performing Arts
Traditional Music and Dance from Southern Thailand
by local artists under the leadership of Rachaphat Sonkhla University

Wednesday, June 29, 2005
7.00 p.m.

 

The Siam Society is arranging seven performances by minority ethnic groups as part of its Centennial Celebrations. This project is an attempt to support preservation and conservation of cultural heritage and diversity. Simultaneously, the aim is to focus public awareness that Thailand is a mosaic of many communities richly endowed with diverse cultural strains from its neighboring countries.

The Society realizes that the impact of regional development has diminished the demand for traditional folk performances and many of the ancient customs and art forms are disappearing. The Society is convinced of the need to maintain the cultural identity of the diverse ethic groups in and around Thailand and the necessity to promote their traditional performing arts.

The cultural performances are partially supported by a grant from
The Rockefeller Foundation

Thailand contains many traditions; some of them are authentically Thai, others are derived from neighboring countries and some from remote mountain areas. The people of Thailand adopted cultures from outside and developed them to suit local traditions, such as language, dress, food, music and dance.

In the case of music and dance in the south, some forms are a combination of local and central Thai traditions; some are influenced by ancient Srivijaya as well as Indonesian and Arab cultures.

The local and ancient central Thai mixed tradition is seen in Manohra (short form nora) dance-drama, which will be presented in:

nora-maebot (classical gesture nohra) performed by students of Rachaphat Songkhla University;

nora-thambot (an interpretive gesture of nohra) performed by the Lamaisin dance group; another nora-thambot performed by a nohra master who is a student of the well-known nohra master Khun Upathamnarakon.

The manohra dances are accompanied by a specific musical instruments such as thab, a single headed drum, klawng tuk, a double-headed drum, percussion and often a double reed wind instrument.

Ronggeng, sampeng and sila are dances influenced by Western, Near Eastern and Malay traditions.

The terms joget and ronggeng denote the most famous and popular Malaysian dance, often seen as an unofficial national social dance. The word joget has two meanings; “dance” and “dancing girl”. In its earlier usage, it probably denoted female courtly dances and dancers in the state of Pahang. The ensemble accompanying the dance was known as a joget gamelan which still exists in Pahang and Trengganu. The form of joget was influenced by Portuguese and Malaysian-Portuguese dancers and musicians at the time of the Portuguese occupation of Melaka, four hundred year ago. Until the early 20th century, it was known by the name ronggeng. With the creation of joget modern, the term joget generally replaced the term ronggeng as the name of the genre.

	Sampeng is a kind of dance derived from Indonesia. It is believed that sampeng originated in the Middle East. The term sampeng means flower, and implies to the headdress in a shape of a flower as well as a group of dancers that dance in groups like flowers.
Sila is a self-defense dance which originated in Indonesia and is also famous in the southern part of Thailand.

The donation for the evening’s entertainment is Baht 100 for members and Baht 200 for non-members which includes light refreshments served during the intermission. Please make your reservations as soon as possible.

 

The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage
131 Sukhumit 21 Bangkok 10110
Tel: +66 (0) 2661 6470-7
Fax: +66 (0) 2258 3491
E-mail: info@siam-society.org
http://www.siam-society.org
Office Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.

 

 

 

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