Looking Back: Royal Lao Classical Dancers
Royal Lao Classical Dancers
Luang Prabang (July 3, 2002) — Beautiful and remote, the Lao Royal Dancers moved sedately across the floor of the Royal Palace Hall. Behind them, the walls were covered in shards of colourful glass—arranged in scenes of village life and Laos legend. The dancers were re-enacting the “Ramayana”: their feet moving in short, thoughtful steps; their arches curling and lifting them; their perfect postures and steady unmoving chins; their arms like the necks of swan, rolling and dipping; their gracefully arranged fingers—their bodies entire moved in measured, fluid, concert. As the sun moved below the mountains, the room shone scarlet and rose and had the dancers not persisted in their careful movements, I would have thought them subjects on a wet canvas, their forms outlined in thick dollops of colour and the whole room churned by an artists’ brush.
We’ve started a new category on our blog called ‘Looking Back’ that will include an occasional entry from our journals that date back to 2001 when we first began writing about living and travelling abroad. We’ll present these paired with a photo in the form of a verbal postcard. Together, these postcards provide an (in)formal and often (in)coherent narrative of the trips we’ve taken!
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Category: Looking Back
About the Author (Author Profile)
For nearly ten years now, Daniel of Two Go Round-The-World has explored how travel captures our imagination and engages our deepest emotions. One half of the duo that maintains the widely read Two Go Round-The-World blog, Daniel treats his subjects not only as works of art but also as symbols of the cultural and political forces that inspire them. His latest book, The Physics of Flocking, gathers his favourite writing featured over the past two years on Two Go Round-The-World in columns like 'Looking Back' and 'The Whole Picture'—along with new reflections.Subscribe
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Such a colourful image, I love it.