What is Burmese dance?
Burmese Dance comprises folk and classical elements corresponding to the varied forms of Burmese music. Burma’s dance styles were originally influenced by neighboring cultures (Thai, Chinese and Indonesian) and its theater forms by the staging of Buddhist stories and propitiation ceremonies of spirit cults.
What is PWE in Burma?
A pwe is a form of traditional Burmese performance combining music, dance and drama which was staged during pagoda festivals and by travelling troupes in rural villages. This is a view outdoors of four Burmese girls in classical dance poses, wearing traditional costume.
What is Zat PWE music?
Performing zat pwe — the traditional Burmese performance form that combines elements of music, dance, and theater into a unique variety extravaganza. The dance, with precisely angled limbs, elegantly smooth at times and wildly acrobatic at others, imitates the movements of a marionette or can be just plain slapstick.
What is the music of Khon?
Thai classical music is also often used as an accompaniment to classical dance such as khon. The music played by the classical orchestras essentially uses a scale of seven equidistant tone-steps, although vocalists and instruments without fixed pitch may sometimes use additional tones.
What is Burmese drama?
Zat pwe is the classical form of dance-drama in Myanmar. It often includes sung passages as well. The Buddhist Jataka stories or their adaptations form the most popular literary material for these dramas, hence the name “zat”, which indicates a Jataka.
What is Nat worship?
Burmese folk religion refers to the animistic and polytheistic religious worship of nats (deities of local and Hindu origin) and ancestors in Myanmar (Burma). Although the beliefs of nats differ across different regions and villages in Burma, there are a handful of beliefs that are universal in Burmese folk religion.
What are the popular dance styles in your community?
Here is a list of the most popular types of dance:
- Ballet.
- Ballroom.
- Contemporary.
- Hip Hop.
- Jazz.
- Tap Dance.
- Folk Dance.
- Irish Dance.
How many tones does Burmese have?
four
There are four contrastive tones in Burmese.
Where did Burmese originate from?
Origins. The Bamar speak Burmese, a Sino-Tibetan language. The Burmese-speaking people first migrated from present-day Yunnan, China to the Irrawaddy valley in the 7th century. Over the following centuries, the Burmese speakers absorbed other ethnic groups such as the Pyu and the Mon.
How is Burmese dance different from other dances?
Although Burmese dance resemble the traditional dancing style of its neighbours, in particular Thailand, it retains unique qualities that distinguish it from other regional styles, including angular, fast-paced and energetic movements and emphasis on pose, not movement.
What kind of costume does a Burmese dancer wear?
The Burmese version is performed in traditional dance costume imitating the court costume of the court of Upper Burma, while in the Shan version the dancer wears a fantastic costume with large, colourful wings supported by bamboo sticks.
Which is the most archaic dance in Myanmar?
The most archaic of the dances of Myanmar are probably the dance sequences belonging to nat pwe rituals, already discussed earlier. As was mentioned, they have also been adapted to the more refined, classical repertory.
What kind of dances do they do in Cambodia?
The classical repertoire includes dances of tribute or invocation and the enactment of traditional stories and epic poems such as the Ramayana. There are more than ten Khmer classical dances but the most performed and known dances are Apsara Dance (Robam Tep Apsara) and Blessing Dance (Robam Choun Por).