Movement and Gestures
Khmer classical dancers use stylized movements and gestures to convey meaning and tell a story. These gestures are often vague and abstract while some may be easily understood. Dancers do not sing or generally speak except for some dance dramas where there are brief instances of speech by the dancers.
Hand gestures in Khmer classical dance are called kbach (meaning style). These hand gestures form a sort of alphabet and represent various things from nature such as fruit, flowers, and leaves. They are used in different combinations and transitions with accompanying movement of the legs and feet, to convey different thoughts and concepts. The way in which they are presented, the position of the arm, and the position of the hand relative to the arm can also affect their meaning. Gestures are performed in different manners depending on the character type.
Read more about this topic: Royal Ballet Of Cambodia
Famous quotes containing the words movement and/or gestures:
“Later
Some movement is reversed and the urgent masks
Speed toward a totally unexpected end
Like clocks out of control.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Love, love, love—all the wretched cant of it, masking egotism, lust, masochism, fantasy under a mythology of sentimental postures, a welter of self-induced miseries and joys, blinding and masking the essential personalities in the frozen gestures of courtship, in the kissing and the dating and the desire, the compliments and the quarrels which vivify its barrenness.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)