No. 60 by Pichet Klunchun Dance Company, part of Queer East Festival

No. 60 is the culmination of Pichet Klunchun’s two-decades-long research into the language of Thai traditional Khon dance.

Stripping the classical form of its face-mask and sequined costume, Pichet scrutinises the 59 poses and movements in the Theppanom canon, which all Thai classical dancers acquire through rote learning. He then generates six new principles that undergird the 700-year-old system and presents a manual of hand-drawn diagrams and notes that allows the young generation to think and learn rationally, free of mysticism and ideological imposition of history.

As No. 60 unfixes the rigidity of classicism, it also embraces the sense and soul of Thai legacy. It unfolds a complex dialogue between tradition and innovation as they inhabit and circulate within the same continuum.