...according to Suwanna Thongpiw, 28
Only songs with blessing lyrics are performed at The Erawan Shrine
When people are in deep sorrow, they come to the Erawan Shrine to pay their respects to Lord Brahma and ask for their wishes to be fulfilled. When their wishes have been granted, they return and hire us to perform ram kae bon (the dance performed to thank the god) in order to complete the vow. The dances performed at The Erawan Shrine, however, are selected from traditional Thai dance songs that contain blessing lyrics, such as “Rabam Thep Ban Therng,” “Krailas Samrerng,” and “Putthanuparp.”
You don’t need to formally learn the art to perform a Thai dance
Is it possible for people who don’t have a background in Thai dance to perform at the Erawan Shrine for a living? It depends on how quick they can pick up the dance. It takes a few hours to learn one song. There was an actress from Hong Kong, Michelle Yim, who helped promote Thai tourism after the bomb explosion a couple of years ago. My team and I trained her and she only spent two hours learning one song. But professional Thai dancers need to be able to perform more than 20 songs accurately.
Sereechai Puttes
Becoming a Thai dancer at Erawan Shrine is very competitive
It’s true what they say that it’s very difficult to get a job as a Thai dancer at The Erawan Shrine. Anyone who gets this job almost never wants to leave partly because of the high pay (calculated based on how many songs you perform). When it gets really busy, I approximately have up to 200 rounds of dancing per shift. Also, there are only two groups of Thai dancers that perform at the Erawan Shrine. Each group only recruits a small number of dancers— there are only 12 dancers in my group.
Break time depends on the number of customers lining up
It’s a well-paid job, but Thai dancing requires great patience. Dancers at the Erawan Shrine don’t have a proper lunch break like regular employees. We have no more than five minutes to have lunch. If there are customers (80 to 90 percent of which are foreigners), queuing to hire you to perform, you need to make haste. Also, if you need to go to the toilet, you often need to hold it in until you complete your task.
Suwanna is a Thai dancer at the Erawan Shrine.
Sereechai Puttes