Pannasak Sukhee's new dance theatre wowed Prague audience last June. After the short run at Bangkok University's Black Box Theatre in late September and early October, he's showing this refreshing take on Buddhist teachings to us in Bangkok on Wednesday, January 9 (free admission; for details, please call 08 6039 5522), before Singapore at the end of the month.

"The project commenced because we wanted to create a new work that can communicate to audiences overseas," says Pannasak, an assistant professor in the Department of Performing Arts and the vice dean of the School of Communication Arts, Bangkok University.

"We want to create a work that shows the contemporary spirit of Thai people. We're not thinking about either traditional Thai dance or adaptations of classical Thai literature. We're thinking about its language of communication. That's why the piece will be filled with lots of movements.

"As for the messages, they're probably from my frustration and anxiety as a Bangkokian. Having learned about and been affected by many situations, I wasn't able to reach or solve any of them," says Pannasak, whose last year's production of "Mahajanaka" was the most widely seen theatre production in Thailand, currently still touring the country.

In "Dancing to Nirvana", the lead character 'She' is a nightclub dancer who secretly watches a line of Buddhist monks collecting alms each morning as her ritual self-consolation from her past night's guilt. This shame shuns her from getting closer to religion, and always stops her at the gate of the temple. Back to her shelter, She reminisces about her false dreams, unfulfilled earthly desires and relationships.

"The central character is a woman. The play deals with sex, gender, religion, materialism, and politics which directly involve her," sums up Pannasak.

"Dancing to Nirvana" has already proved to be a performance that audiences from various cultures can understand. In June, it was the only production from Asia chosen to be staged at Theatre Na Zabradli in Prague, as part of the International Festival of Independent and Amateur Theatres.

"A critic in Prague said that it had successfully travelled across language and culture barriers," says Pannasak. "Among the shows presented there, our audience was the biggest."

"It has changed a lot since then," Pannasak says. "The Prague version was smaller and much simpler, as I had not really studied and understood Buddhism in-depth. Now, I have had more time to study it and adjust the performance accordingly. It's centred around 'Ittappajayata', the concept that one thing leads to another, and that nothing is eternal.

"My life goal is not to get rich but to seek wisdom, so I study more and more, and have discovered many truths. For example, although Thailand is a Buddhist country, the way Buddhism is taught in school is not quite right. The more I study Dharma by myself, I find that we lack discipline in our study and practice of Buddhism. We're often lured by happiness and artificiality. I know by heart what Lord Buddha taught. But could I lead my life accordingly? No.

"I won't give out solutions to the problems presented in the play. I just want to show what's happening here and now. Some people may say they're not like the characters in the play, well, they are parts of who and what I actually am."

Will foreigners living in Thailand be able to understand the performance?

"Well, the piece is filled with movements and there are more Pali sermons than Thai dialogues," Pannasak says, laughing. "When people ask whether they would get it, I say 'well, even Thai audience may not understand these lines'."

"Dancing to Nirvana", with English surtitles, is scheduled to be performed from January 31 to February 2 at Esplanade's Theatre Studio in Singapore. Tickets are SGD 30 (SGD 25 for students). For more, visit www.esplanade.com.

"Of course, further changes will be made between now and then. Working with my choreographer Parinya Tongponthong, I'm still dancing, with suffering [from the fact that I understand Dharma but can't really practice it in real life], and haven't reached any solutions or nirvana yet."

written by Pawit Mahasarinand;

edited from the article published in The Nation on September 28, 2007

all photos are courtesy of Bangkok University's Department of Performing Arts