Biography

His Childhood

Nakarin Jaikla, born on 22nd October 1982, was raised by his beloved grandmother whom he called mom ever since he could remember. His grandmother was like a second mom to him after his parents divorced when he was 1 year and 2 months old. He learned arts and craft in Northern Thai style from his grandmother who always brought him around when there were community events or ceremonies in the village. It became apparent that the appreciation of cultural tradition and arts was in his blood.

In his early childhood, Nakarin lived in the village called Phrao, one of the suburbs in Chiang Mai Province of Thailand. (Northern part of Thailand). He graduated his primary education level from Baan Jang Koo Reung school. When he was in primary school, he had a great talent in arts and craft. He participated in numerous art competitions and had been the representative of his school to compete with other art students. This is where the beginning of Nakarin’s journey through the world of arts began.

At 13 years of age, Nakarin had to move to another suburb to receive secondary school education at Nawamindharachutith Payup school. This was where his skills in arts and craft developed significantly. Having great potentials in creative skills, Nakarin continued to participate in art competitions including drawing, painting, crafts, Thai musical instruments and more. He always seized every opportunity in competitions believing that he could gain more experience and improve his skills.

One of the challenges Nakarin’s faced during his secondary school education was to improve his skills in social dance (one of the subjects in the school). He took private classes outside of school and practiced regularly at home to improve his dancing skills. This is the point where Nakarin started his dancing journey.

He joined Dancesport club at Chiang Mai University to learn more skills in social dance and, at the same time, there was an opportunity for him to enter himself in the Dancesport competition. He brought himself to the final round of Thailand National Youth Sport Competition in 1998.

His Passion

In his final year of secondary school, all students had to decide where they will continue their future. He decided to continue on with his passion in arts and entered into the Special Entrance Program from Faculty of Fine Arts at Chiang Mai University. This program selected 5 students from 17 provinces (All Northern Thai provinces) who had strong skills and knowledge in arts and culture, especially in Lanna Culture. Nakarin was one of the 5 selected students to study in Faculty of Fine Arts, Major in Thai Art in Chiang Mai University in the year 2000. While he studied in arts and culture at the university, Nakarin continued his dancing journey in Dancesport. He became the representative of Chiang Mai Province to compete in many events.

In 2002, Nakarin won a Gold medal in Class D and Bronze Medal in Class C in Latin American in 3rd ADSA Singapore Open Dancesport championships 2002. And once again in Thailand Dancesport Association Championship 2003 (Thailand Representative), Nakarin won a Gold Medal in class C Latin American and that was the last event the attended before focussing on his study.

Nakarin started learning some Thai Lanna dancing from the senior students and started performing as Dhavada (Male Angle). He started to try learning different dance styles as his passion in performing arts grew more and more. Until 2004, he graduated in a bachelor degree with second class honour from faculty of Fine Art, Chiang Mai University. It had been a great journey for him to absorb all Thai-Lanna art and culture into his soul.

After his graduation, Nakarin worked as a dance teacher and choreographer at Voice Studio Entertainment in Chiang Mai. He taught regular dance classes and also choreographed for the company’s productions. He received a scholarship from the company to get more experience in dancing and observing musical productions in USA. The last production that he choreographed was for Voice Studio Entertainment "Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" This Production was performed in Kad Suan Keaw Theatre, Chiang Mai and Bangkok Theatre.

His Journey

In 2006, Nakarin decided to move to Melbourne, Australia. He planned to gain more knowledge in dancing and decided to study full-time at Box Hill Institute of TAFE in Diploma of Dance Teaching and Management course. He, once again, received a First Year Outstanding Student Scholarship. After his success in completing the diploma of dance teaching and management, he became a ballet teacher at Victoria Ballet School in Fitzroy from 2008 - 2011. At the same time, he also performed with Young Dancer Company. He performed in several productions such as Franz in Coppelia by Victoria Ballet School 2008, as Bert in Marry Poppins by Victoria Ballet School 2009, as Lysander in A Mid Summer Nights Dream by Victoria Ballet School 2010, as lead The tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher in The tales of Beatrix Potter by Young Dancer Company 2007, as Lead Banksia Man in Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by Young Dancer Company 2008 and Nutcracker Prince in The Nutcracker by Young Dancer Company 2010.

While living in Melbourne, Nakarin performed Thai dancing in several occasions such as Thai culture and Food Festival 2008 - 2010, Thai Gala Dinner and Charity events. He also choreographed some Thai Lanna Contemporary dance as well. Moreover, he also collaborate his work with other artists to expand more experience too.

In early 2012, Nakarin founded and started directing for SILP Productions Inc. to promote Thai arts and culture in Melbourne. Throughout 2012, Nakarin has performed with Delta Project in Collision productions (A new Melbourne-Borne company of Deaf and Hearing dancers) and has joined with Triple8Funk Dance Company. After all of his hard work and his skills, Nakarin has promoted to be an artistic director of Triple8Funk Dance Company in 2013.

Nakarin received funding from City of Melbourne – Arts Grants Program 2014, through SILP Productions Inc. to develop and present a production in Thai-Australian cross-cultural performance “Believe in Belief. This production was performed on 26th – 28th of September 2014 as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival 2014.

In November 2014, Nakarin joined MAPFest (Melaka Art and Performance Festival 2014) in Melaka, Malaysia, to perform his soloist in Thai Contemporary work. He presented his first soloist in “Love and Lost” in Mapping section and also “The Origin of Faith” in Cerita Pendek 2. He also collaborated with other artist in “GAIP” and the closing ceremony performance in “Eulogy”

In December 2014, back in Melbourne, Nakarin participated in a project with Multicultural Arts Victoria in “Traces of Transformation” Project as part of MAPPING Melbourne (Independent Contemporary Asian Art) He created his new soloist in “Power of Warrior”.

This is just the beginning of his journey. Nakarin still keep driving his passion, to motivate his creativity and to showcase his workmanship in ARTS.