Choreography Long Song Thon Suranagong: Royal Conservative Dance Traditions

Abstract

This research aims to study dance patterns of Long Song Thon in Inao, the LakhonNai of Fine Arts Department, to analyze and develop Long Song Thon Suranagong Dance in order to promote the royal conservative dance traditions and serve as a guideline to create Thai traditional dance that preserves complete conservative traditions. From the study, it is found that Long Song Thon is the dance to show dancers' skills in performing the gestures of bathing and dressing using Long Song Thon Lyric, with the dance performance according to the interpretation of lyrics, the expression of gestures in the lyrics, and the dances in tune with frequently drawn out note.
Long Song Thon Dance is influenced by Hindu beliefs about the importance of water, in which the water was used to purify the impurity from the body for good luck. The belief about water purification was found even in major royal ceremonies in each life stage. This belief was transmitted to literature and later appeared in the form of the performance. The development procedures of choreography of Long Song Thon Suranagong consist of: 1. The development of the opening dance in Ton Khao Man Lyric using original dance patterns created by supreme dance teachers; 2. The development of the dance in Long Song Thon Lyric including the Main Posture, the Supplement Posture, the Connecting Posture, and the Waving Posture; 3.The development of the leaving dance in Sum Boriyan Lyric, which is a dance pattern accompanying the horse riding action, focusing on using feet to correspond with the rhythm; 3. The development of the leaving dance in Sum Boriyan Lyric, which is a dance pattern accompanying the horse riding action, focusing on using feet to correspond with the rhythm; 4. The development of stage usage including the movement in walking up front and back, the movement in a diagonal line, and the movement in a sideways figure eight. The choreography of Long Song Thon Suranagong was developed according to the royal conservative dance traditions, which was the flourished LakhonNai traditions that existed in the reign of King Rama II and was passed down to the present. Therefore it is worthy as a guideline for further study.