By AUNG THET WINE
RANGOON — It could be a scene from a Bollywood movie. But this is Rangoon, and the woman dancing at the side of the road is a 46-year-old mother of two grown-up children—busking for money to support herself and her sick husband.
An Indian song blares from a cheap cassette recorder and beside that is a white board identifying the dancer as Mayhninsi, offering to perform for 500 kyat (US 50 cents) a number.
Today, Mayhninsi’s pitch is on Pensodan Road in downtown Rangoon, where people stop and gape—some of them clearly puzzled that a Burmese woman is sacrificing her customary dignity to perform like this in public.
Mayhninsi doesn’t seem to care. Perspiration makes her thick makeup run, dust clings to her white teeshirt and patterned trousers. Sunglasses sit fashionably on her head.
Between dances, Mayhninsi tells me how she grew up as an orphan and began dancing at the age of 10 to support her stepparents. She never went to school and lacks any qualification that would enable her to find a job other than dancing in public.
When her husband fell ill she became the breadwinner of the family, dancing to support him and two growing children.
Mayhninsi’s day begins at 10 a.m. She saves money by walking several miles from her suburban home to downtown Rangoon, where she sets up her pitch wherever there’s a crowd.
At 6 p.m., she’s ready to return home, but if takings are low she stays longer, dancing into the evening.
She earns up to 8,000 kyat ($7.84) a day, but there are expenses to meet—her Chinese-made cassette player eats up batteries, which cost 1,500 Kyat ($1.47) to replace.
Sometimes Mayhninsi is invited to perform at neighbourhood weddings. “The people I dance for are poor,” she says. “They can’t afford good food, so I entertain the guests and make them happy. I also feel very happy when they have a good time and applaud my dancing.”
She also teaches young girls how to dance in night clubs and karaoke bars. Her own training was minimal, but she keeps up to date with Indian and Burmese dance styles by watching videos and then practising in front of a mirror at home. The Burmese actor Yaza Ne Win and singer Sai Sai Khan Hlaing are favorites of hers.
It’s a hard life for a 46-year-old housewife, and Mayhninsi has to put up with harassment by some of the men in her audiences. But she intends to continue until her remaining ambition is fulfilled—a house big enough to live as a family with her son and daughter.
“As a mother, I want to leave them with an inheritance. That ambition keeps me dancing.”
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