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Published on October 22, 2007

   One of the most striking performances of Bangkok's ninth International Festival of Dance and Music and one that will linger in the minds of audiences for many months to come was, without a doubt, Zurich Ballet's reinterpretation of Shakespeare's much-loved play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Thais will be proud to learn that among the 26 nationalities that make up the Zurich Ballet's 54-strong troupe is a 24-year-old Thai, Pornpim "Noon" Karchai.

Heinz Spoerli, the company's internationally renowned artistic director, speaks highly of her. "Pornpim's very special. She's a very beautiful girl with some fine qualities for dance. She's easy to work with - it's very easy to cast her in different ballets as she's been trained in many different styles."

An alumnus of Bangkok's Varaporn-Kanchana Ballet School and the prestigious Australian Ballet School in Melbourne, Pornpim is now in her fifth year with this Swiss-based but well-travelled company, under a "Group with Solo" contract.

"I started out with Zurich Ballet's Junior Company for two years before I got accepted to the main company as a trainee, and was eventually promoted to the point where I am now," she says.

"Life at the Zurich Ballet during performance season is quite tough. In the morning, we have an hour-and-fifteen-minute ballet class and a two-hour rehearsal. Then we have three hours of break, and three more hours of ballet class in the evening. It goes on like this everyday except on performance days, when we have to get ready [for the performance] instead of doing the evening class.

"As a dancer, the fact that Zurich Ballet does both classical and contemporary repertoires is quite challenging. Even the ballet repertoires categorised as 'classical' are Mr Spoerli's own rather 'neo-classical' versions. For contemporary, each choreographer has his or her own style and the dancers have to be able to adapt to it. Usually, the contemporary-dance choreographers send their ballet master to observe the class and see who fits their repertoires. If you want to be chosen, you have to work really hard to make yourself stand out.

"As for me, I try to do my best at everything. The difficult part is to dance the pieces I'm not familiar with, like those by the choreographers whose works I've never seen before. It's hard to dance when you don't know which technique they use, what kind of movements they like, or whether they want you dance softly or push yourself to your limits. Of course, technical skills are also difficult, but you can always practice."

A few days after Bangkok's "Dream", Zurich Ballet performed its abstract piece "Cello Suites: Wind in the Void", also choreographed by Heinz Spoerli, at Esplanade Theatre, in Singapore. The key to working on two ballets at the same time, according to Pornpim, is preparation.

"There are many differences between these two ballets. The choreography is different, so is the music, and the dancers really have to prepare themselves for these dissimilarities. For example, 'Cello Suites' largely consists of pas de deux pieces and the hardest work goes primarily to the soloists. The ballet is less complicated than 'Dream', which has many scenes, entrances and exits, and the dancers have to really pay attention to these details."

When asked about what she thought of the ballet scene in Thailand, our hometown ballet dancer gives a small smile.

"As far as I know, people are getting more interested in ballet. I was quite surprised when I learned that 'Dream' tickets were almost sold out. There seems to be more and more ballet students and the parents are more supportive. There are also more productions from abroad, giving young dancers ideas of what they can do with what they're learning.

"However, the main problem here is the lack of professional companies and diversity. We have actually staged many good ballet productions in the past, but they didn't show much variety. Mainly, what we've done is copy the classical choreography from DVDs. We need more input. It could be either more contemporary works from abroad or newly choreographed pieces.

"I myself would like to stage my own production one day, but for now I still really enjoy being a dancer. Besides, I feel I've just started and have a lot more to see and learn."

At the end of our interview, Pornpim offers a few words for young Thai ballet dancers who want to go professional: "Dancing is really hard work, so make sure you really like it. If so, best of luck to you!"

The writer can be contacted at min_ballet@hotmail.com.

Jasmine Baker

Special to The Nation