All-night performances, which combine melodrama, slapstick, traditional dance, and even pop music are called "zat pwe" in Burma. These seasonal events are staged in enclosed temporary bamboo theatres and are typically part of annual fund raising activities at pagoda festivals .

2019年8月20日 · Nat pwe is ritual spirit-medium dance, only performed in public at animistic festivals, and rarely seen by visitors. Among other forms of theatre, pya zat is often seen before zat pwe performances. A dance-play with mythical themes, it is generally set in a fantasy world where a heroic prince must overcome the evil-doings of demons and sorcerers.

Traditionally, Zat-pwe performances would last all-night combining dance with melodrama, comedy and acrobatics and would coincide with Buddhist pagoda festivals and ceremonies.

2025年2月12日 · Nat Pwe is a unique form of traditional Myanmar dance dedicated to the worship of "nats," which are spirits or deities that hold a significant place in Myanmar's animist belief system. During Nat Pwe ceremonies, dancers often channel the spirits and convey their messages through graceful movements and dramatic gestures.

An evening of zat pwe presents a panoply of music, song, dance, drama, and comedy all led by a male stage star known as a mintha, accompanied by his female counterpart, a minthamee, and an ensemble of clowns. The music of the hsaing waing (a traditional percussion-gong-oboe ensemble in Myanmar) is integral to every moment on stage.

Pwe Taw Hmyauk (Raising up the Golden Bowl of Offerings to the Nat Spirit) The original, royal court version of the A Pyo Taw (Royal Maiden) dance gradually evolved into a series of refined movements associated with the Burmese A Nyeint, a form of minthamee dance with singing and dialogue popular after the fall of the Konbaung dynasty in 1885.

Zat pwe is the classical form of dance-drama in Myanmar. It often includes sung passages as well. The Buddhist Jataka stories or their adaptations form the most popular literary material for these dramas, hence the name “zat”, which indicates a Jataka. Stories are, however, also derived from Burmese history.

These traditional dances – A-nyeint, Zat pwe, and Lethwei – are cherished art forms in Myanmar, embodying the country’s customs, history, and artistic expression.

2015年10月14日 · Prepare for dance performance in Nat Festival. Throughout a Nat-Pwe the circulation of money is rarely left to fate. There are points in which the denor is, by ritual, required to make as offering. At such moments the Nat-Kadaw, will remind him with a vivid gesture.

The most archaic of the dances of Myanmar are probably the dance sequences belonging to nat pwe rituals, already discussed earlier. As was mentioned, they have also been adapted to the more refined, classical repertory.