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NAY NAI
by Pichet Klunchun Dance Company
A TheatreWorks Commission
Pichet Klunchun, is reputed for his contemporary
reinterpretation of Thai classical dance Khon. Along with his dance company,
Pichet Klunchun Dance Company, he takes the stage this time with Nay Nai.
Nay Nai
is
inspired by a group of young gentlemen who became a symbol of perfection and
modernity in the early 20th Century in Siam. While most of these gentlemen were
commoners, they rose to positions of power and played important political,
cultural and social roles in Siam then.
Pichet Klunchun, is reputed for his contemporary reinterpretation of Thai classical dance Khon. Along with his dance company, Pichet Klunchun Dance Company, he takes the stage this time with Nay Nai.
Nay Nai is inspired by a group of young gentlemen who became a symbol of perfection and modernity in the early 20th Century in Siam. While most of these gentlemen were commoners, they rose to positions of power and played important political, cultural and social roles in Siam then.
Through the use of Khon with contemporary ideas and movements, performed in the format of a high-energy competition and reality TV show, Nay Nai sets out to investigate how people today strive to reach the apex of power and influence.
Pichet Klunchun Dance Company
Pichet Klunchun Dance Company was founded by Pichet Klunchun, an independent solo dance artist and international choreographer who is competent in Thai classical dance, contemporary dance, and choreography.
Pichet bridges traditional Thai Classical Dance language with contemporary sensibility, while keeping the heart and wisdom of the convention. He trained in Thai Classical Mask Dance, Khon, from age 16 with Chaiyot Khummanee, one of the best Khon masters in Thailand. He has earned domestic notoriety for his efforts in contemporising khon. He has participated lately in several intercultural performing arts programs as a Thai representative and as an international dancer-choreographer in Asia and Europe.
With his international working experiences and desire to establish a professional standard, Pichet founded Pichet Klunchun Dance Company to create pure art performance and to train a number of young blood professional dancers with strong Thai classical dance backgrounds.
In 2008, Pichet received the ‘Routes’ ECF Princess Margriet Award for Cultural Diversity from the European Cultural Foundation. The purpose of the award is to honour artists and thinkers in the field of cultural diversity for helping to combat fear and disrespect of ‘the other’. And in 2012, Pichet received the "Chevalier of the French Arts and Literature Order" award from the French Ministry of Culture for his contribution to the influence of Culture in France, Thailand and internationally.
Pichet was most recently awarded the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award by the Asian Cultural Council which focuses on cultural exchanges between the United States and Asian countries.