ARTISTS
Kornkarn Rungsawang
photo by Bernie Ng
Kornkarn Rungsawang
Thailand／Dance artist
Born in Bangkok, Thailand in 1988, Rungsawang represents a new generation of dance artists whose aims are to bridge the traditional and contemporary. She trained in diverse traditional Thai performances, varying from those of royal court to the popular folk ones.
Rungsawang applies her wide knowledge of traditional kinesthetic systems to the contemporary body and urban rhythms to formulate new dance expressions that reflect the current social, cultural and political environment. She has been a full time dancer in Pichet Klunchun Dance Company under the tutelage of renowned choreographer Pichet Klunchun since 2007.
As a solo artist, Rungsawang ’s notable past projects include “Organs” (2017, Bangkok) a dance series that included a workshop focused on the female sex. The female genitalia became the inspiration for generating new dance vocabulary.
She is also on the way to completing her solo work called “Dance Offering,” that explores worship, spirituality and technology. “Dance Offering” has been workshopped and presented in stages internationally, from Bangkok (2021, online version), Singapore (2022, under Dance Nucleus Singapore with Esplanade Theatres on the Bay), Germany (2022, Tanzkongress in Mainz) and Indonesia (2022, Indonesian Dance Festival in Jakarta).
Rungsawang is grateful to be able to continue developing her “Dance Offering” in a residency at the Kinosaki International Arts Center. She hopes to develop and deepen her understanding of spirituality and worship by doing a cross-comparison with local spiritual and cultural practices in Japan.
Rungsawang applies her wide knowledge of traditional kinesthetic systems to the contemporary body and urban rhythms to formulate new dance expressions that reflect the current social, cultural and political environment. She has been a full time dancer in Pichet Klunchun Dance Company under the tutelage of renowned choreographer Pichet Klunchun since 2007.
As a solo artist, Rungsawang ’s notable past projects include “Organs” (2017, Bangkok) a dance series that included a workshop focused on the female sex. The female genitalia became the inspiration for generating new dance vocabulary.
She is also on the way to completing her solo work called “Dance Offering,” that explores worship, spirituality and technology. “Dance Offering” has been workshopped and presented in stages internationally, from Bangkok (2021, online version), Singapore (2022, under Dance Nucleus Singapore with Esplanade Theatres on the Bay), Germany (2022, Tanzkongress in Mainz) and Indonesia (2022, Indonesian Dance Festival in Jakarta).
Rungsawang is grateful to be able to continue developing her “Dance Offering” in a residency at the Kinosaki International Arts Center. She hopes to develop and deepen her understanding of spirituality and worship by doing a cross-comparison with local spiritual and cultural practices in Japan.
2023 project
Dance Offering
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DanceOffering - VECTOR#2, photo by Bernie Ng
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Dance Offering - VECTOR#2, photo by Bernie Ng
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Kornkarn Rungsawang’s “Dance Offering” is a developmental idea that combines augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and dance. It is a hybrid dance performance that presents an updated and alternative form to the traditional Thai RUM-KEA-BON where dance is used as a negotiation tool between human and higher or sacred beings; for making requests or wishes to the sacred beings. As humans, we see ourselves not as mere subjects who beg from the higher-ups but as beings who have something to offer in exchange, when our wishes are fulfilled.
“Dance Offering” is an interactive/immersive performance; audience members are invited to make their wishes or prayers to a digital shrine. The digital shrine is an imaginary space where hopes, desires and beliefs can reside; it is an imaginary space of negotiation between the mundane and the divine. Rungsawang assists in ‘sending’ these wishes and prayers through dance to higher beings in the digital shrine. More than that, she conveys the gift of dance to the higher beings when someone’s wish, or prayer is answered. In other words, Rungsawang becomes an interphase between the physical and the digital spaces, between mortal and immortal worlds, between wishes, prayers, desires and fulfillment, satisfaction, success.
“Dance Offering” is an interactive/immersive performance; audience members are invited to make their wishes or prayers to a digital shrine. The digital shrine is an imaginary space where hopes, desires and beliefs can reside; it is an imaginary space of negotiation between the mundane and the divine. Rungsawang assists in ‘sending’ these wishes and prayers through dance to higher beings in the digital shrine. More than that, she conveys the gift of dance to the higher beings when someone’s wish, or prayer is answered. In other words, Rungsawang becomes an interphase between the physical and the digital spaces, between mortal and immortal worlds, between wishes, prayers, desires and fulfillment, satisfaction, success.
