Decoding the Dance Movements of the Phu Thai People of Ban Phon: Semiotics of Ecology and Way of Life in Public Multimedia

Abstract

This research consists purposes were 1. to analyze the compositional elements and movement vocabulary of the Phu Thai Ban Phon Fon dance, Kham Muang District, Kalasin Province, as documented in publicly available performance records and 2. to decode the kinesic meanings that reflect the relationship between ecology and the community's way of life. This study employed a qualitative research design based on documentary and media analysis. The sources comprised video recordings of performances at provincial-level festivals, textbooks, theses and dissertations, research articles and relevant archival documents. As no primary data were collected directly from human participants, the study did not require review by a human research ethics committee. The collected data were then analyzed using descriptive content analysis. The findings reveal that 1) the movement vocabulary of the Ban Phon Phu Thai dance embeds two principal semiotic dimensions: ecological signs, expressed through nature-mimicry movements such as flying-bird and swimming-fish gestures and swaying-bamboo body motion, together with spatial and hand-level choreography echoing the Phu Phan mountain landscape and abundant waterways and livelihood and community-economy signs, expressed through movement sequences linked to the Praewa silk-weaving process  mulberry-picking, silk-reeling and weaving gestures  together with movements conveying belief systems and social bonds and 2) the natural environment shapes the community's economic structure, which is re-encoded as a kinesic language for identity communication through contemporary media. The Ban Phon Phu Thai dance is therefore not a static heritage artifact but a “dynamic sign” that shifts meaning according to its media context and presentation space. These findings can inform performance narration scripts, local curriculum materials and future comparative research on other Phu Thai sub-groups.