Currently, the center is preparing for it's next performance in San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade on Saturday, February 23, at 6pm. The event will also be broadcast on KTVU and KTSF television stations. We are proud to be representing the Thai community in this year’s Lunar New Year celebration.

For more information, please visit www.chineseparade.com.

The center happily welcomes it visiting instructors for 2008!

Pimon Poemcharoennukul (pictured left), “Kru Thom,” is this year’s visiting dance instructor. From the province of Samut Songkhram, she began studying traditional Thai dance in elementary school because she believes it is a beautiful symbol of the culture. She is excited at this opportunity to spread understanding of the Thai culture in the United States with the chance to learn English, and she says, “The kids are cute too.” She is currently an undergraduate student majoring in Thai performing arts.

Oraphan Laopha (pictured right), “Kru Kik,” a native of Bangkok, has been playing Thai classical music for 12 years. As a child, her friends persuaded her to take music lessons with them at her school, and her first instrument was the ‘kruey,’ a wind instrument resembling the recorder. She also teaches the Isan folk band in addition to specializing in the stringed ‘wode’. She is having fun teaching children at TCC because, she says, “sometimes we can’t communicate, but we are still able to learn from each other despite the language difference.”