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Flash Review 1, 8-28: Back from
the Dead
From the Killing Fields to the Joyce with the Spirit of Cambodia
By Maura Nguyen Donohue
Copyright 2001 Maura Nguyen Donohue
By most estimates, 90 percent of
Cambodia's artists and intellectuals perished as a result of the Khmer Rouge's
4-year cleansing campaign that left between one and two million dead. The artists
who had been under the protection of the temple and court for over a thousand
years were denounced as bourgeois and sentenced to death by execution, forced
labor, starvation or disease. These people had once been considered intermediaries
between the celestial world and the royal household. But by 1980, when the survivors
began trying to locate one another, fewer than 40 dancers and teachers could be
found. It isn't possible to watch a program of Cambodian dance, even one as skillfully
serene as Dance, fhe Spirit of Cambodia (a project of the Royal University of
Fine Arts-RUFA) this past weekend at the Joyce, without considering the immense
suffering and struggle behind the sweet smiles and opulent costumes.
It's also not possible, unless you
didn't get a program, to leave the Joyce without noticing that this tour of 45
dancers and musicians, and essentially the preservation of Cambodian dance itself,
would never had been possible if not for some dedicated American support. This
unprecedented 12-city tour -- there was a smaller tour over 10 years ago -- has
been produced by the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Asia Society and
Lisa Booth Management. NEFA's executive director, Sam Miller and artistic director,
Proeng Chhieng, planned a tour that did much more than showcase a group of gathered
artists. This tour serves to help strengthen Cambodian dance at a time when the
few remaining masters are rapidly aging. Connections with American-based masters
in refugee Cambodian communities in the U.S. have been instrumental in the documentation
and preservation process. There are educational programs and lectures in each
location.
I don't applaud American support
uninformed. Last week at meetings for Dance Theater Workshop's Mekong Project
I heard tales from the Asian Cultural Council's director Ralph Samuelson about
the important support systems the ACC, with the aid of the Rockefeller Foundation,
has put into place to help maintain RUFA. Though the university was re-established
in 1980, soon after the end of the Khmer Rouge's reign, it's taken until this
year for a theater to open on campus. With ACC aid, a library has been opened
and faculty salaries are subsidized so that teachers don't have to hustle in addition
to teaching in order to simply survive.
Of course, none of this background
matters on stage. The artists present an enjoyable survey of classical court and
folk dance and music. The Joyce program opened with the breathtaking image of
three women floating like the apsaras (celestial dancers) carved throughout Angkor
Wat. They danced in a manner of extreme serenity, a befitting description if you've
ever witnessed the intensely calm manner of a Cambodian dancer. The technique
requires intense focus made to look effortless. The manner is grounded, often
in a soft plie, yet fluid, and the bearing quite regal. A simple and subtle, but
noticeably significant, shift of weight follows controlled undulations that support
the articulating fingers of the graceful women. It's both sweet and seductive.
Bits of folk dance liven up the otherwise tranquil selections and Mr. Nol Soboun's
solo playing on four of Cambodia's many woodwind instruments is a lesson in circular
breathing, a difficult skill that involves inhaling and exhaling simultaneously
so as not to break up the emitted sound.
The shorter pieces in the first half
of the program set the audience up for the excerpt from everyone's favorite Indian
epic, the Ramayana (known as the Reamker), that makes up the second act. Here
in court tradition, women play men and men play monkees. (No comment). One of
the most enjoyable scenes, however, is distinctly Cambodian. Hanuman -- the monkey
general, played by a skillfully athletic and engaging Mr. Soeur Thavarak -- woos
Sovann Maccha, queen of the mermaids, in a delightful performance by Ms. Ouk Solichumnith.
This chapter doesn't appear in any Indian versions. Ms. Khieu Sotheavy is a commanding
and stately Preah Ream (Prince Rama) whose smallest shift at the pleas of Ms.
Sam Sathya's Neang Seda (Princess Sita) is delicious theater. The formalized battle
sequence is striking and the staging and lighting design for Neang Seda's trial
by fire is absolutely heavenly. We were transported to a celestial palace.
NEFA has established the Fund for
Cambodian Culture. For more information, please click
here.
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