Thai Dance

Me, wearing a traditional Thai costume.

For the Round Square Conference, some of my friends and I were supposed to perform a traditional Thai dance, showing the essence of Thai culture.


What were my aims?
I think that it is true that getting acquainted with different cultures makes a person more well rounded and knowledgeable. So I aimed myself to learn Thai dance, to perform it in the coming up Round Square conference, meanwhile supporting internationalism and developing myself as an open minded person. 


What did I do?

I started to have weekly Thai dance classes. Dancing is one of my passions, especially when it helps me to understand more about other cultures. Before I tried to dance different traditional dances, but Thai Dance was something that I have never experienced.

There are few performances more elegant than traditional Thai Dance with its graceful movements, its brilliant color, its soft rhythm and its radiating presence. It is so beautiful to see all the movements that always have a meaning hidden under them. The moves are so delicate and so calm.

What difficulties did I encounter?

Our dance group

As I liked dancing I thought that I was not going to meet any major obstacles, but to be honest it was pretty hard for me to learn that Thai dance. It was probably because it required slow movements and flexibility. I knew I was more flexible than I was before (because of my previously done Yoga classes), but it wasn’t enough. My friends who were dancing with me helped me a lot. With patience they explained me how to do the difficult moves. The thought that I was going to perform it during the conference motivated me toward working harder on my movements. After some lessons I could see the progress and in a month time I successfully learned all the moves and was glad that I had the opportunity to experience that kind of elegant dance.

What did I achieve?

I think that this dance helped to increase the belief in myself, i understood that there is more in me that I sometimes think there is. I just have to act as a risk-taker and explore what's inside me. 
The dance also helped me to meet my objectives, as I developed myself as an open minded person. I got acquainted with another cultural dance as well, and increased my flexibility and dance skills. I started to understand appreciate Thai culture and their values more than I used to. 
I became more of a reflective person as I also understood that if I can’t do something I have to try as long as I will be able to do that. Sometimes it might be hard to do it alone, and at that point you will need someone to help you to succeed.