Setting out in the midst of one of the fiercest rainstorms I’ve seen, Tawn and I headed up to The Esplanade shopping center Saturday night to meet Brian, Roka and Ken for dinner, followed by a performance at the Thailand Cultural Center.

Traffic was very heavy, as you might expect.  We took a shortcut through the green line (a series of back sois that form a maze bounded by Sukhumvit, Phetchaburi, Asoke and Ekkamai) to Phetchaburi, working back to Asoke and then up to Ratchadapisek.

We had dinner at Ootoya restaurant, which does a good job on reasonably priced Japanese donburi cuisine (rice dishes, no sushi).  The English spelling on their signage caused some confusion for Ken, though!  (right)

The event at the Thailand Cultural Center was the Friends of the Arts Annual Charity Performance.  The program was a triple bill of dance activities:

The first part was a performance of the balcony scene from Prokofiev’s ballet of Romeo and Juliet performed by a pair of Canadians from Alberta Ballet.  It was beautifully danced and Prokofiev’s music is wonderful. 

The second part was four pieces, each choreographed by (and performed by) local Thai dancers.  The first of the four was May Yimsai, a professional teacher from whom Tawn will soon be taking classes.  Her piece was a three-part modern dance that lasted about ten minutes.  It was followed by a Hindu-inspired pieces with six males dancers and one female.  Then there was a very modern, angry piece by a female soloist that was – I read in the program after the fact – meant to describe the anguish of getting over an affair with a married man.  (I really should read the program beforehand!) 

Left: Tawn poses with some local dance students after making a donation to Friends of the Arts.

The final of the four local pieces was an interestingly effective modern piece in which five dancers, all dressed as people from every walk of life, form a line on the stage under full lights.  Then they waited.  The audience anticipated that music would start but for several minutes there was just silence.  Then they started to dance, initially in ballet-inspired moves, each doing their own thing. 

One dancer was trying to keep his balance on just one leg with his eyes closed.  When he finally lost his balance, he froze.  Another dancer came over and put her hand on his head and he came back to life, but this time his dancing was erratic, even spastic.  Slowly, the other dancers also devolved into chaotic dance.

As the Thai national anthem started playing, dozens of other people rushed the stage from the wings and started throwing orange ping pong balls at each other.  Suddenly, they stopped, but when the lyrics reached the phrase about how, when fighting, Thais never give up, they resumed pummeling each other with ping pong balls, below.

It was very engaging throughout because it was unexpected but really invited the viewer to view it through many different lenses of interpretation.  I saw it as a piece about the conformity of Thai society where everyone is told to keep their balance.  When the balance is lost, the inner side of people comes out, none the better for the repression.

The third act of the show was performed by local students and was advertised as selections from musicals such as “Chicago” and “Moulin Rouge”.  What it ended up as was a lot of fairly explicit dancing by skimpily-clad young woman.  If I was a parent who had paid for my daughter to take dancing lessons and this was the recital I saw, I’d be shocked.

I was more embarrassed for the half-dozen Catholic nuns and the two dozen young children who had been brought as part of the Christian humanitarian organization, World Vision.  The nuns were sitting in the second row and didn’t seem to be getting a lot out of the dancing.  The whole thing became increasingly surreal when Tawn pointed out that on the way to the theatre, we had passed one of the local “adult entertainment” clubs that had a help-wanted sign out in front: “Looking for pretty girls, coyote dancers, and mama sans.”

At least these girls will have somewhere to put their dance training to good use.  Roka was a bit concerned, though, that there would be another act featuring ping pong balls.

After the show, we ducked back stage to say hello to Tawn’s high school friend, future ballet teacher, and noted performed this evening, May Yimsai, right.

These cultural events are always interesting, if for no other reason than it helps to support the arts and the reality is that the average Thai citizen isn’t very aware of the public arts.  Showing up to these events adds at least a modicum of momentum to making public arts more a part of Thai life.