Oba Thaung (), born Thaung Tin ( , 11 April 1898 – 13 January 1971) was an eminent Burmese
anyeint dancer and singer, who is credited for codifying the previously undocumented
Burmese dance repertory.
She started her dancing career since she was fourteen and had had twenty four years of experiences. In 1953, the State School of Fine Arts was open in
Mandalay
Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census).
Mandalay was fo ...
and Oba Thaung served as first dance instructor for female students. There, she codified 125 steps of the traditional Burmese choreography, literally named ''Kabya Lut Aka'' (; Dance without Verse), which consists of five dance courses intended as a five-year term of study. Each of the five courses is broken into 25 dance sequences comprising a total of 125 stages, with each stage of precisely ten minutes.
She was awarded the title
Wunna Kyawhtin, the highest honor given to an artist by the Burmese government.
See also
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Burmese dance
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Anyeint
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Sin Kho Ma Lay
Sin Kho Ma Lay ( my, ဆင်ခိုးမလေး; ; ; born Ma Hmyin; 1852 – 1930) was a Burmese court dancer, best known during the late Konbaung era.
She was so favoured by the Chief Queen Supayalat that a royal verbal order came out in ...
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Yindaw Ma Lay
Yindaw Ma Lay ( my, ယင်းတော်မလေး; ; 1846 – 1916) was a Burmese royal court dancer, best known during the late Konbaung era. Yindaw Ma Lay is said to be one of the two mothers of the Mandalay's first dramatic arts era ...
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Ma Htwe Lay
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Aung Bala
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Liberty Ma Mya Yin
Liberty Mya Yin ( my, လေဘာတီမြရင်; 21 April 1904 – 29 April 1945) was a Burmese anyeint dancer and singer, best known during the pre- World War II period. She gained the moniker "Liberty" from college fans who advocated ...
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Mya Chay Gyin Ma Ngwe Myaing
"Mya Chay-Gyin" Ma Ngwe Myaing ( my, မြခြေချင်း မငွေမြိုင်, ; born Ngwe Hlaing; 21 November 1894 – 20 September 1959) was a Burmese dance performer of the twentieth century, in the tradition of Ma H ...
Further reading
* ''Oba Thaung: Who Systematized Myanma Dance'', Zaw Pale and Khin Win New, (translated to English by
Than Tun, 1995)
References
{{Authority control
Burmese dancers
20th-century Burmese women singers
1971 deaths
1898 births
Recipients of the Wunna Kyawhtin