Director’s Program

“Mali Bucha: Dance Offering”

KIAC Residence Selection 2023→24:
Kornkarn Rungsawang

Concept, Choreography and Dance: Kornkarn Rungsawang

Area

Kinosaki

Venue

Kinosaki International Arts Center

Date and Time

Sep.13(Fri)18:00
Sep.14(Sat)14:00
Sep.15(Sun)14:00

Performance Duration

Approx. 75 minutes
Reception Open: 60 mins before the show
Doors Open: 15 mins before the show

Performance Language

Performed in English, Japanese and Thai without subtitles

Admission Fee

【All seats unreserved】
Advance Tickets: ¥2,500
Same-day Tickets: ¥3,000
Advance Toyooka Citizen Discount: ¥1,500 ※*
Same-day Toyooka Citizen Discount: ¥2,000 ※*
Advance Tickets U25/Student/Disabled Discount: ¥1,500*
Same-day Tickets Disabled Discount: ¥2,000*
U18 for advance and Same-day: Free*
Uzumaku Pass: ¥1,000

Clap Mates*
If there are remaining seats on the day, you can watch the performance for free who aged 19 to 25, or those with a valid student ID.

※* The Toyooka Citizen Discount is available to residents, students, or workers in Toyooka City.

*Please proof required on the day of the event

Ticket

Cross material and virtual worlds with up-and-coming choreographer Kornkarn Rungsawang in a performance that combines dance, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
“Mali Bucha: Dance Offering” is inspired by the 400-year-old Thai ritual Rum-Kea-Bon, where dance is a negotiation tool between human and higher beings: the most charming dancer—hired as a messenger from the people to the spirits’ realm—is able to enhance the likelihood of one’s wish fulfilment. This vernacular practice, commonly taking place at street corners, has constantly evolved and adapted itself as a social and cultural practice in Thailand.
Drawing from what is effectively a ‘people’s dance’ and a space of aspiration and spirituality, Rungsawang offers an immersive and participatory iteration of Rum-Kea-Bon, in which she acts as a choreographic interface between the material plane of the audience and the digital shrine. Flowing as a current throughout “Mali Bucha: Dance Offering” is a belief system that concerns itself with duality—economics and ecology, image and sound, old and new, the mundane and the transcendent.

Performers: Concept, Choreography and Dance: Kornkarn Rungsawang

Staff: Sound Design: Zai Tang
Lighting Design: Asako Miura
VR & Video Design / Operation: Takuya Matsumi & Junnosuke Hara
Stage Manager: Yuhi Kobayashi
Stage Manager Assistant: Shunsuke Watanaka
Project management and translation: Kazue Suzuki / SEASUN

Costume Design: Manit Theppatimaporn, Kanapoot Viruttanachai
Dramaturge: Tang Fu Kuen
Producer: Sojirat Singholka
International Distribution: Stéphane NoëL / Materialise

Accessibility

Wheelchair Seats
For wheelchair seats, or the person requests to be accompanied by a caregiver.
Before purchasing tickets, please inquire at the Festival Center counter or fill out the inquiry form.

Childcare Services (Reservation Required)
Date: All Performances
Childcare services will be provided free of charge. For details, please click here.

Notes

Please bring your smartphone if you have one. Those without a smartphone will still be able to
participate.

No admission for preschoolers

Reservation：https://ssl.form-mailer.jp/fms/e45d3fc9828353

Credits: Presented and co-produced by Kinosaki International Arts Center (Toyooka city)
Commissioned by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay (Singapore / SG)
Supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, Fiscal Year 2024
Residency and research supported by Chang Theatre & Pichet Klunchun Dance Company (Bangkok / TH), Dance Nucleus (Singapore / SG), Tanz Kongress (Mainz / DE), Indonesian Dance Festival (Jakarta / ID), Tijmur Arts Festival (Pingtung County / TW), and Kinosaki International Arts Center (Toyooka / JP).
Equipment cooperated by NPO DANCE BOX
Planning and production management by General Incorporated Association POST
Partnershiped by Toyooka Theater Festival Executive Committee
Project participating in Toyooka Art Season 2024

撮影：西山円茄

Kinosaki International Arts Center (KIAC): Throughout the year, Kinosaki International Arts Center (KIAC) supports the creative processes of artists by backing their field research and organizing opportunities to share their work with local citizens. Following last year’s success, KIAC will continue to create opportunities for artists to present their works during the Toyooka Theater Festival. KIAC will present a new work by Kornkarn Rungsawang, an up-and-coming Thai dance artist who marries tradition and contemporary dance, and was supported by KIAC last year.

photo courtesy of Indonesian Dance Festival

Kornkarn Rungsawang: Born in Bangkok in 1988, Rungsawang represents a new generation of dance artists whose aim is to bridge the traditional and contemporary. Trained in diverse Thai traditions, from royal court to popular folk forms, she applies her wide knowledge of traditional kinesthetics systems to the contemporary body and urban rhythms to formulate new dance expressions that reflect the current social, cultural and political environment. Since 2007, she has been a full-time artist in Pichet Klunchun Dance Company under the tutelage of renowned choreographer Pichet Klunchun. Since 2021, Kornkarn has been developing her own performances thanks to the support of a growing international network of presenters in Asia and Europe and premiered her solo Mali Bucha: Dance Offering in October 2023 at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay in Singapore.