The Ladies of Laos

The Ladies of Laos

Leader: Emily Siangkam

From April 19-24, 2018, the annual Multicultural show was the highlight of the week.

One of the performing groups was the “Ladies of Laos,” a group of 5 Laotian females.

After practicing for 2 months at Harambee Church, their efforts shined and entertained the audience with an amazing show.

For the first 40 seconds of the dance, a recording of Barack Obama was going on while the group was doing the dance of a blooming blossom.

On September 5, 2016, Barack Obama was the first president to visit Vientiane, Laos. President Obama described Laos as the most heavily bombed nation in history; eight bombs a minute were dropped on average during the Vietnam war between 1964 and 1973 with a total of 580,344 bombing missions – more than the amount used during the whole of World War II.

A flower dance representing the bombs that were dropped on Laos was performed.

After the recording of Obama, the music transitioned to a Laotian song “Sai Kan Fai” a hand movement dance, called Lao Fawn, which is a traditional dance for properly dancing to a Laotian song.

Last year, the group consisted of 3 members. This year it grew to 5, with new incomers Angel Phandanouvong and Melissa Douangdara.

Group leader, Emily Siangkam, is currently a senior at Renton High. She had a great, final experience with Multicultural week, as she is the only senior in her group.

Choreography was helped by former member, Sinnedy, who graduated from Renton High School in 2016.

All 5 girls were also in the 2018 Multicultural Fashion Show, representing the two cities of Laos.