Rom Kbach-ing

Been learning some khmer dances this week in the Space, courtesy of Mom and Nita. Showed them some pics from a colouring book I've recently acquired (full of handy and informative cultural stuff as well as dances) and they picked this one to start with as it's the easiest.

It's called the Rom Kbach, Rom (រាំ) meaning "dance" and Kbach (ក្បាច) - a general term (lit., style or motif) referring to a pose or gesture used in Khmer classical dance. It's a slow, simple dance which takes heavily from the classical dance of the royal court eg: elegant hand gestures. The music it's danced to utilises the melodies of classical dance songs and combines them with traditional Khmer and Western instruments and is often used at weddings and celebrations. Thanks for that, Wikipedia.

So, here they are, doing the Rom Kbach in the Space:

And, having failed to get a photo of my own efforts, here's me rom kbach-ing last year with absolutely no idea what I was doing:

Glad to have more of a clue now. Big thanks to the power of colouring books, friends and space.