Back in 2011, I interpreted for Pichet Klunchun, a Thai independent dance artist, on his Khon workshop for Melbourne dancers at the Australian Ballet studio in Melbourne during the National Dance Forum. As a dancer myself, I joined the workshop which was the first time I’ve ever trained in Khon.

On the first day of the two-day workshop, we did around 50 minutes of warm-up, a sort of etude in Khon. Then Khun Pichet asked us to find an extension of these Khon movement from the etudes. And of course, within the next 40 minutes of the session, we were still finding. The second day, exactly the same. We were still finding.

So when I had a chance to visit Khun Pichet in Bangkok, I had a privilege to discuss and observe the process of finding the extension of Khon with the dancers that he’s been working with for quite some time. It seems to me that Khun Pichet has a desire to bring Khon to the audience on a more personal level and find the relevance of Khon in a contemporary society.

With Khun Pichet's practice of Khon, he pulls apart various aspects of Khon to create movement vocabulary and derive a creative process. For example:-

     >  Circular forms of movement through the body in Khon practice with its energy running through with movement.  He use computer graphic programs to analyse the form and energy of Khon movement. He sometimes uses these graphics of form and energy to create movement vocabulary.

     >  The relationship with Khon props particularly with the Khon masks. Dancers are brainstorming ways in which they respond to the masks.

     >  The layers of at least two aspects of Khon, piling up in the creative process.

The story telling or the narrative of Khon. Khun Pichet experiments on his dancers' own version of story telling which, unlike Khon, may not be in a chronological order.

In fact, Khun Pichet's process is a deconstruction of Khon and transforms it into a contemporary dance. The result is a rich creative process and choreography with arresting layering in imageries and kinaesthetic explorations. With the process of deconstruction of Khon, he explores the possibility of movement vocabulary (deriving from Khon) ranging from something similar to Khon in appearance to barely reminiscent of Khon.

When I observed the rehearsal with four dancers at the Chang Theatre, Khun Pichet was focusing on the presence of a dancer who put on a mask of an elephant (Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan?) He focused on the quality of attention in the dancer's transformation from human to embodiment of the mask.

Noh and Khon

There are many similarities with Noh and Khon. I took up Noh training for a different reason to that which, Khun Pichet took up Khon. For me, studying and practicing Noh is like a study of philosophy of performance in its history and tradition as well as corporeally. Noh takes a long time to infuse in my body. After three years of practicing Noh utai and shimai, I think I would practice Noh for a long time, as long as I can walk.

     >  As classical styles of dance, Noh and Khon has evolved for a narrative purpose. Actors/dancers of both styles are trained to embody the characters they play with specific vocabulary for the narratives.

     >  Yet the methods of training in both styles prepare the actors/dancers' body and mind for the embodiment of the characters they play.  The training of both methods, though different, rids the body of adrenaline, activates parasympathetic nervous system [1] (see footnote), thus slows down the heart rates, similar to the effect of meditation.  It is the opposite to the idea of an active body which has adrenaline running through it [2].

     >  Both methods of training create “presence” of the actors/dancers. I believe the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system enables the actors/dancers to work in a sustainable flow of energy with the lower heart rate. They have “time” for creative thoughts and kinaesthetic awareness to create the intensity of their performance.

     >  Many students or practitioners of Khon and Noh regard the trainings as the “emptying out” of the body during and after the training. Artistically speaking, this emptying out prepares the body for the process of creating. Perhaps this refers to the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. The body operates with lower energy yet there's an intensity of energy circulating in the actor/dancer body – a kind of energising, readies the body to generate movement, presence and creativity.

PS:  Khun Pichet pays a tribute to his teacher, Master Chaiyot Khummanee, and Khon training exquisitely in his first solo, I Am Demon.

[1] Parasympathetic nervous system is active during rest, digestion and meditation.

[2] Adrenaline (also known as epinephrine) is a hormone and a neurotransmitter.  Adrenaline has many functions in the body, regulating heart rate, blood vessel and air passage diameters, and metabolic shifts.  Adrenaline release is a crucial component of the flight-or-fight responses of the sympathetic nervous system.  In chemical terms, adrenaline is one of a group of monoamines called catecholamines.  It is produced in some neurons of the central nervous system, and in the chormaffin cells of the adrenal medulla from the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine.