Handed Down - Nevada Arts Council

1988–1989 1993–1994
Thai Classical Dance:
Pat Kanoknata and Santhana Lopez
Supat Kanoknata had lived in Las Vegas for almost
five years, an active member of the Thai community
there, before he let people know he was an accomplished
traditional dancer. When he first performed in the
spring of 1992 people thought he had come in from
Los Angeles—they had no idea Las Vegas had a
classical dancer of his caliber, and he was immediately
besieged with requests to teach. Pat had studied at the
performing arts academy in Bangkok for eleven years,
but went on to a career in business despite an invitation
to become an instructor at the academy. He says he
finally performed again in public “to build the Thai
name. Nothing about me, nothing personal, because I
didn’t ask for money. Just to let the community know
about this…where I’m from, what I learn.”
Pat began holding informal classes for members of
the Thai community, rehearsing at his office or in his
apartment, and performing several times a year at Thai
community parties or benefits for the Thai Buddhist
Temple in Las Vegas. One of his students was Santhana
Lopez, a young woman who started learning Thai dance
as a child, and has performed in Guam and in the United
States, where she has lived for 14 years. Santhana was
already an accomplished dancer, but when she first saw
Pat she said, “Who is that guy dancing out there? I want
to know him. He’s good.” She had seen other dancers in
Las Vegas but reported that, “They not that good, I don’t
even want to pay attention, I’m better than them. I want
somebody to teach me to be better than me, I don’t want
to be better than somebody that teach me, so he’s better
than me, I want him to be my teacher.”
Pat admits he is a perfectionist when it comes to
teaching classic Thai dance, which is an exact and demanding
art form. There are dozens of subtle moves of
the hands, feet and body, each with a specific meaning.
All Thai dances tell a story, so it is important for the
dancers to understand the music and words of a dance
first, even when they are sung in the formal palace language.
“I want them to be perfect, not just good,” Pat
says. “They know that, everyone knows they have to
keep doing it ten, twenty times until I say yes, then you
can pass. I want quality. That’s it, that’s what counts.”
Pat also bought and made many of the elaborate costumes
required for Thai dance, and oversaw every aspect
of his students’ performances. Unfortunately, he
left Las Vegas in 1995, leaving a huge gap in the Thai
cultural community there, but also a lasting legacy of
excellence.
Thai dance master
Pat Kanoknata.
Santhana Lopez (right)
performing at the Las
Vegas Folklife Festival.
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