The main thing I am focused on at RUFA is dancing various giant roles in performances of The Reamker.
More specifically, I am focused on a single five-minute dance! But, believe me, to understand all the subtleties of what is happening and why with this particular dance you could spend 20 years. The same thing happens in martial arts. In fact, this dance is a martial art, albeit with the martial application hidden in its moves (I do this dance with sharp bladed weapons).
Before we go on to see me do this, you gotta see some great performers do it. By the way, there is very little online documentation about this art as it's kept, not exactly secret, but private.
In this video, you see some great giant dancing beginning at about 8:00 minutes in.
My First Performance
A couple of things I can tell you. (1) That costume is sewn on and tighter than you can imagine. (2) when you have that mask on all you can hear is the thunder of you adrenalized breathing roaring in your ears. During my performance below I was in front of about 800 people and suddenly petrified because I couldn’t hear my cues from the narrator. I missed a couple of marks but hey, that’s what is awesome about theater.
Oh, and you can’t see very well. there were three steps I had to navigate. I almost tripped and fell and broke my neck. Or maybe just the proverbial break a leg.