`Dances in the manner of the other people` and the way of educating minority cultures in Laos.

Dancing in the manner of the other people requires at least some knowledge on the otherness of those people’s culture. In Laos, the other people are subsumed under the title “sonphau”, which means “tribes” or – with some good will – “people”. Using the term sonphau competes with the politically stan...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jaehnichen, Gisa
Other Authors: Nor, Anis
Format: Book Section
Language:English
Published: Cultural Centre University of Malaya & National Department for Culture and Arts 2013
_version_ 1796970925263945728
author Jaehnichen, Gisa
author2 Nor, Anis
author_facet Nor, Anis
Jaehnichen, Gisa
author_sort Jaehnichen, Gisa
collection UPM
description Dancing in the manner of the other people requires at least some knowledge on the otherness of those people’s culture. In Laos, the other people are subsumed under the title “sonphau”, which means “tribes” or – with some good will – “people”. Using the term sonphau competes with the politically standardised use of classified names for people living on the top of the mountains “lao sun”, living in the high valleys “lao theung” and living in the lowlands “lao lum”. These terms avoid the peoples’ names to support a down levelled national emphasis that excludes historical and social differences. Thus cultural elements of various meanings can be instrumentalized easily. In the era of developing mass media, performing arts such as dance, theatre and music are the first to become standardized and re-interpreted items of an abstract national whole degrading local dance and music praxis as kind of strange particularities. “Nationalised” dances, which are a lively part of most of the cultures found in Laos, summarize the imagination of the majority’s Lao dance educators assisted by state cultural managers about dances of the minorities living in the mountains and high valleys. One creation is the following very popular dance, which is among others frequently performed on the main stage of the National Cultural Hall. The dancers themselves, in this case graduates from the National School for Dance and Music in Vientiane, are not familiar with dance practices and conceptions of all the different minorities that might be included.
first_indexed 2024-03-06T08:05:20Z
format Book Section
id upm.eprints-26338
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-06T08:05:20Z
publishDate 2013
publisher Cultural Centre University of Malaya & National Department for Culture and Arts
record_format dspace
spelling upm.eprints-263382014-09-11T03:20:44Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/26338/ `Dances in the manner of the other people` and the way of educating minority cultures in Laos. Jaehnichen, Gisa Dancing in the manner of the other people requires at least some knowledge on the otherness of those people’s culture. In Laos, the other people are subsumed under the title “sonphau”, which means “tribes” or – with some good will – “people”. Using the term sonphau competes with the politically standardised use of classified names for people living on the top of the mountains “lao sun”, living in the high valleys “lao theung” and living in the lowlands “lao lum”. These terms avoid the peoples’ names to support a down levelled national emphasis that excludes historical and social differences. Thus cultural elements of various meanings can be instrumentalized easily. In the era of developing mass media, performing arts such as dance, theatre and music are the first to become standardized and re-interpreted items of an abstract national whole degrading local dance and music praxis as kind of strange particularities. “Nationalised” dances, which are a lively part of most of the cultures found in Laos, summarize the imagination of the majority’s Lao dance educators assisted by state cultural managers about dances of the minorities living in the mountains and high valleys. One creation is the following very popular dance, which is among others frequently performed on the main stage of the National Cultural Hall. The dancers themselves, in this case graduates from the National School for Dance and Music in Vientiane, are not familiar with dance practices and conceptions of all the different minorities that might be included. Cultural Centre University of Malaya & National Department for Culture and Arts Nor, Anis 2013 Book Section PeerReviewed Jaehnichen, Gisa (2013) `Dances in the manner of the other people` and the way of educating minority cultures in Laos. In: Dancing Mosaic - Issues on Dance Hybridity. Cultural Centre University of Malaya & National Department for Culture and Arts, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, pp. 148-157. ISBN 9789670380179 English
spellingShingle Jaehnichen, Gisa
`Dances in the manner of the other people` and the way of educating minority cultures in Laos.
title `Dances in the manner of the other people` and the way of educating minority cultures in Laos.
title_full `Dances in the manner of the other people` and the way of educating minority cultures in Laos.
title_fullStr `Dances in the manner of the other people` and the way of educating minority cultures in Laos.
title_full_unstemmed `Dances in the manner of the other people` and the way of educating minority cultures in Laos.
title_short `Dances in the manner of the other people` and the way of educating minority cultures in Laos.
title_sort dances in the manner of the other people and the way of educating minority cultures in laos
work_keys_str_mv AT jaehnichengisa dancesinthemanneroftheotherpeopleandthewayofeducatingminorityculturesinlaos