Creative Dance of Chuichay Khunpansansathan

Abstract

The created dance of Chuichay Khunpansansathan was studied to assess 1. The history of the khunpan actor in Khun Chang Khunpan literature, and 2. The history and design creativity of the Chuichay khunpansansathan dance. The study revealed that 1) Khun Chang Khunpan is a real-life story from the Ayudhaya period. Khunpan was a royal soldier. He was brave and the best warrior. After getting married he received the royal command to go to war in Chian gthong. Khun Chang used a trick to kidnap Wanthong. When he came back he rode the Simog horse to Khun Chang’s home to kidnap her. This is the fantastic love story through Sepa singing into drama. 2) History of Chuichay dance was originally the singing of villagers only in Ayudhaya period, later in Rattanakosin period. It was performed in royal courts for all famous Lords. The Chuichay song represented happiness and pride and had been performed until the reign of King Rama IV, who later integrated it into a prelude performance of female Lakorn which later on became popular and eventually was depicted in Khon performance to present the emotions of happiness as well as the beauty of actor’s dressing. All of the information above is the creator’s inspiration in designing new Chuichay dance of Chuichaykhunpansansathan by combining the customs of Sepa singing and Punthang drama from Thai dance based on the nature of human being basics by means of adapting the original Chuichay dance to tell about Khunpan’s history, who faced both sadness and happiness. The show was delivered by performers who had to express the feelings through their eyes and facial expressions.In addition, the performance was delivered in pair representing two characters of a man (Khunpan) and a horse (Simog).