In all honesty this was ‘Look Like You’re Ballroom Dancing in 10 Minutes’. I taught the attendees (1) the basic posture, (2) how to do a spin, and (3) how to ‘dip’ their partner at the end of the song to look cool. Simple.
By the end of the sessions Michael had booked a yoga class for 6:30 AM the next day, and I had agreed to teach a longer class at 8pm that evening. My experience? Some training in middle school, and a few weeks hanging with the Phnom Penh Swing group. I’m not exactly an expert.
Justin loaned me his IPod with some swing classics, but even those were a tad fast. I was looking for slow songs with a basic 4/4 beat. Really slow, to start out with. So I went for the classics: Sin Si Simuth. People drifted into the conference room and we went through a few basics.
And what should come on as the third or fourth number? ‘Bopha Chiang Mai’, about a Khmer man who falls in love with a Thai woman.
By this time Tharum had shown up. He had been waiting for an opportunity all week to share Laura Mam‘s version of the same song. We ended up unplugging my Ipod and holding a microphone next to Tharum’s laptop speakers.
It was really fun to encourage people to loosen up. Southeast Asian dancing is not terribly ‘hands on’ so it was fun to see Burmese, Khmer, Lao and Thai folks try something different, resulting in a lot of joking and smiles.
By that time enough people had joined that it was getting tricky to manage. Different skill levels, different languages. We ended the class after an hour with a track from ‘Cambodian Rocks‘.
“You come to see the Monster?” I was asked. I nodded and got pointed upstairs to the Cinema.
In addition to a heap of electronic equipment I spotted a Kse Diev (a string instrument held against the player’s body), a Tro (a violin-sounding string instrument that uses a membrane for its sound), Kong Vong Thom (metal gongs), and Roneat (wooden xylophone).
‘Krom Monster’ (Monster Group) launched right into their performance, including video art provided by Tith Kanitha. It was charming to hear Pinpeat music in a new context, and the ensemble broken down into its constituent parts. Melodic percussion can often be overwhelming to the Western ear in my experience.
Some of their earlier work involved RUFA students collecting peoples’ dreams and writing them on a ‘wishing tree’, which was then incorporated into the final visuals of the performance. (More clips here and here.)
The audience reaction was quite positive, and it looks like some more efforts are in the works. But this premiere was also the final performance for Krom Monster for the next few months.
Want more? Check Incidental’s blog, or write your thoughts on the Wishing Tree.
