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Word on the street
(Volume 26, No. 513)
A group of foreign tourists will explore Myanmar by hot air balloon this month. This picture shows them flying above Loikaw last January. Pic: Supplied
MOE MIN rose to fame in the 1990s with his impressive imitation of Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, and now, in his 40s, is still popular for his contemporary dance and work in traditional Myanmar theatre. Timeout spoke with the dancer about his opinion on theatre and contemporary dance shortly before he left for a concert outside of Yangon.
When did you first learn to moon walk?I’ve known about contemporary dance since it hit Myanmar and would practise by myself using videos. I started learning about dance since the time of Boney M and Amitabh Bachchan. Later, Michael Jackson appeared and became famous because of his amazing new dance steps like the moonwalk. I really like him and practised while watching his videos.
What challenges did you face learning contemporary dance?I had to practise for three and a half days to be able to dance Michael Jackson’s moonwalk before I was ready for an audience. The audience really enjoyed it when I danced and would always say that Moe Min can dance just like Michael. After some time I got a break dance lesson video and, watching it, I found that my moonwalk dance steps were opposite to what Michael did, but no one has ever noticed. I then had to learn again how Michael did it.
How do you think dance and performance has changed in Myanmar over the past ten years?Contemporary dance became popular about twenty years ago in Myanmar. Now, we can only dance what we learned at that time so it is just like rehearsing what we already know, only now we don’t have the same eagerness as before.
How do you find switching between Myanmar traditional dance and contemporary dance?Yes, it is difficult to dance both. We have to be able to divide in our mind…as these two kinds of dance are very different from each other so we have to be very careful about our gestures. It would be difficult to move from Myanmar traditional theatre with its costumes to a style like Michael Jackson’s immed-iately. Still, I am preparing to do that kind of performance but Myanmar traditional costumes are difficult to wear and take off so I’m still thinking about how I could do it.
How do we keep traditional theatrical dance alive?Some people are using our traditions to achieve fame. There’s nothing wrong in combining contemporary and traditional dance or music provided our aim is to promote our traditions. For example, some people are using [traditional culture] in their fashion by combining [traditional] royal page and ogre costumes together. It is not right to create fashion in this way.
