Studying in Vietnam

Everyone that I told about my plans to go to Vietnam to study the traditional arts just smiled politely.'
The first major challenge Eleanor was faced with was the language; in order to learn the art form she had to know Vietnamese. So two months before the intended trip she bought a 'Teach Yourself Vietnamese' kit and 'studied like crazy' she was already fluent in
French and found that her previous
study of language helped a lot.

When she arrived in Vietnam she was competent in basic Vietnamese; she could ask where the toilet was and what the time was etc. She had decided that the best way to learn the language and understand the culture was to live with a Vietnamese family. Her friend Thi had arranged her to stay with a couple who were both musical artists, this would be her home for the next five months.

'I can remember feeling confident with the language when I stepped off the plane, but the moment I tried to speak to the locals I realised I was in big trouble. If I had studied hard to learn Vietnamese in Australia then I was ten times more so once I arrived in Vietnam. It was a case of absolute necessity, which is the best motivation you can find.'

Eleanor spend the next five months devoting all of her energy into learning the art form. She took one lesson per day, the teacher would come to her house and teach for two hours. The rest of the day would be spend practicing alone for hours at a time. There are three forms of Vietnamese theatre; Tuong, Cheo and Cai luong. Eleanor chose to study Tuong because this was the art form that her Vietnamerse role model back in Australia, Binh had studied. It is Vietnam's oldest and most difficult art form, involving acting, singing and dancing. Tuong has strong influences from the Chinese opera and was originally performed for royalty.

'To be honest I've never worked so hard in my life. I really poured all of myself into learning the art form and learning the language. I would get annoyed if people invited me to go out because all I wanted to do was study.'


During five months, Eleanor studying the following pieces;

Ho Nguyet Co Hoa Cao (Ho Nguyet Co Becomes a Fox)

Ho Nguyet Co is beautiful woman who was born as a fox but possess a magical pearl which allows her to become a human. For a thousand years she has studied and trained to be a powerful human. One day when returning home from battle she comes across a hansome man named Thiet Giao. He belongs to the enemy side, but she does not fight him and instead flirts and reveals the secret of her pearl to him. Thiet Giao seduces her and as they are making love he clutches the pearl from her and runs off with it. And so begins the piece that Eleanor performes; the struggle that Ho Nghuyet Co goes through as she gradually returns to her original state as a fox. The famous line from this piece is 'A thousand years wasted in one moment of foolishness'.

'This was the first piece that I studied so I found it to be difficult. First of all , my Vietnamese was very basic. But more so was the fact that this was the first time I'd been exposed to this artform. The music did not seem to follow any pattern to me, it seems so unpredictable and difficult to remember. I had previously sung Italian opera and found that to be difficult but that was nothing compared to the complexity of Tuong singing. I did start of with an awful fear that perhaps my voice wasn't strong enough to hold the music. But my teachers were so incouraging, and I worked very, very hard.'

Ngu Bien (Five Disguises)

Xuan Tram sneaks into the palace and assasinates the man that killed her husband. Then to escape persecution she disguises herself five times; as a dumb child, a crazy woman, and old man, a beggar and a blind fotune teller.

'When I first began learning this piece I was amazed at

the talent of my teacher; Ms Man Thu. She was quite elderly but still much more limber than myself, and she could hold the characters so skilfully. Later I learned that I was in fact being taught by Vietnam's most famous and aclaimed Tuong artist, which would be the equivelant of being taught by Joan Sutherland in Australia.'

My Teachers

This piece involved changing from one charcter from the next very quickly. The characters are stylized and very physical. Each character has it's own song.

Xuan Dao Cat Thit (Xuan Dao Cuts her Flesh

Xuan Dao fighting against the storm

Xuan Dao is left alone with her mother in law while her husband is taking his exams. During a huge flood Xuan Dao is unable to leave to house and her mother is dying from starvation. Desperate, Xuan Dao decides to cut her own flesh to feed her mother. The loss of blood causes Xuan Dao to become weak to the point of near death. But the local god sees her suffering and comes down to earth to bring her back to life.

'An incredibly emotional piece. It was a skill that I'd never been taught before to balance the stylised movements with truthfully embodying the struggle of the character. For instance to scream in pain as the knife slices her flesh, but not to break out of the strict dance movements.'

Du Hong

Du Hong, similar to Ho Nguyet Co was born a chicken, but has trained for thousands of years to become a powerful human. Standing on the top of a cloud Du hong witnesses a battle and decides to descend from the sky to asist the reitous party. This was a piece originally only done by male actors but they made an exception in my case. Eleanor found it to be by far the most difficult piece.

'When I performed it I finished the piece, walked off stage, and collapsed.'

In this piece the costume is very elebrate. It involves the face to be painted in the traditional style with colours black white and red.

Aside from these pieces Eleanor also studied weapons movement which included sword, bow and arrow, flag and fighting.

Eleanor returned home from Vietnam to Australia in December, now determined to come back to Vietnam as soon as possible. During her time living in her Vietnamese homestay she had been exposed to another of Vietnam's opera forms; she had been living with Nguyen Thanh Tuyet, a previously famous actor in the Cheo artform. She was now teaching at the University of Stage and cinemea Hanoi and Eleanor had many oportunities to see her students perform.

'Compared with Tuong, Cheo is much more Vietnamese. It is lighter and more graceful (Tuong is more powerful and skillful). The music is absolultely magical, involving a lot of vocal range with notes quickly going from high to low. And the dancing is quite baletic. I couldn't resist, I fell so deaply in love with this artform that I knew Vietnam had not yet finished with me.'

For a more deatailed account of Eleanor's experience learing Tuong vist- Learning Tuong