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Byline: Phoenix Jay

Ancient no more

Ancient no more

Nothing remains of the original texts which might have demystified the meanings and gestures of dance in the ancient temples of Ankgor. What is known about these elaborate rituals is that they were performed not for mere mortals, but as offerings to the gods. One seventh-century inscription, as reported by Boreth Ly on AsiaSociety.org, details in Sanskrit how dancers were ‘donated’ to temples by patrons and devotees. King Jayavarman VII was among the most generous, gifting thousands during his 37-year reign.

As part of the annual buong suong ceremony, it would fall to the monarch to ask the heavens for help on behalf of the nation. The plea was duly conveyed by classical dancers, who, legend has it, became possessed by divine spirits until the dance was complete. These highly stylised vehicles of worship, known in Khmer as robam kbech boraan, finally took their rightful place on Unesco’s world heritage list of intangible and oral treasures in November 2003. The journey had not been a smooth one.

Guggenheim Fellow Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, Cambodia’s most celebrated choreographer, was eight years old when in 1975 most performers went into hiding for fear they’d be executed by the Khmer Rouge. Almost overnight, the art of classical dance was reduced to a vessel for Maoist rhetoric. By 1981, when the School of Fine Arts finally reopened, only a handful of classical dancers had survived. Among the first 111 students to enrol was Sophiline.

In the years that immediately followed, classical dance was once more repurposed as a political tool. A tale about two gods fighting over a crystal ball, originally intended to demonstrate the difference between ignorance and enlightenment, was transformed by the state into one of communism versus capitalism (ironically, the lofty references to Leninism and Marxism were lost on most of the audience, who craved cultural stimulation after years of violence).

Today, this centuries-old dance form is evolving at an unprecedented rate courtesy of Sophiline and her husband John Shapiro, who co-founded Khmer Arts here in 2002. From an exotic Takhmao theatre originally built by Okhna Chheng Phon, minister of culture from 1982 to 1989 and one of the chief architects of the revival of the traditional Khmer arts, their professional dance troupe has become the first to usher classical dance into the 21st century.

On April 7, Khmer Arts will lift the lid on their revolutionary approach to ancient dance forms in a jungle extravaganza marking the organisation’s tenth anniversary and Cambodia’s New Year. The theatre’s setting is suitably dignified: five smiling Bayonesque faces watch performances unfold from the top of a towering Angkorian backdrop. The Advisor joined Khmer Arts during a recent rehearsal to talk hand gestures, gods, and time travel.

Sophiline: “People consider classical dance a symbol of cultural pride, because it’s such a unique art form to Cambodia, but war and poverty and the lack of outreach programmes – these make people think art is the least important. But culture is an element in our lives that identifies who we are. Classical dance plays that role.

“The way people sit, the way people pose, the way people offer greetings: these are all manifestations of classical dance in the simplest way. Look at social dances, the circle dance: the rhythm is kind of slow; the hand gestures resemble those of classical dance. To create work like ours – using the classical form but addressing contemporary issues – is also important. And the more people know about hand gestures and the meanings behind the dance, the more they can appreciate it.”

John: “If you come to it knowing nothing, all you can do is appreciate the surface aesthetic. For example, Sophiline was commissioned to create a piece for a Vienna festival based on Mozart’s The Magic Flute. She said: ‘I’m supposed to do something with this? What the hell is it?!’ Then she read a book about symbolism in the Magic Flute, a book about the history of the Freemasons (the Magic Flute is about Masonic beliefs), and a book about the last year of Mozart’s life, when he composed the piece. Through deciphering the opera, she was able to make a parallel between that and the Khmer Rouge – the dangers of extreme rhetoric and how that leaves no room for compassion and no room to change policy. She used Cambodian characters and mythology to express the dangers of using and adhering to extreme ideology. That’s the deciphering process.

“The only complaints we hear is that people are tired of seeing the same five to seven classical dances over and over and over again. Just as if you’re a ballet fan, you don’t want to see The Nutcracker or Swan Lake every week. What people say – and this is young and old – is that they’re very appreciative of seeing something new – and in classical dance, we’re the only ones doing this in Cambodia.”

Sophiline: “Seasons of Migration, which I choreographed in 2005, is the first piece, in my knowledge, to attempt to address a contemporary issue – and that issue is culture shock, including identity crisis. Culture shock is a modern concept, especially with people who migrate from place to place, but it can also apply to people who move from the countryside to the city, or back. People such as myself, who moved to the US and then came back.

“It’s a contemporary creation, but the form is classical. When I was at the School of Fine Arts in 1981, my teachers thought classical dance should look back to the past and excavate historic knowledge. We only choreographed new work that related to mythology, but not looking forward and dealing with contemporary issues. But this work is based on a concept coming out of everyday life.”

John: “Seasons of Migration is about gods and goddesses coming to Earth to live among humans and how they experience culture shock.”

Sophiline: “One of the goddesses is a serpent and she has problems with her tail. She doesn’t like it. She wants to tear it off.”

John: “That’s because none of the humans have tails, so she feels out of place.”

Sophiline: “That was our attempt to bring the classical form into the present time and make it relevant to us, to our lives, today.”

John: “Classical dance comes out of that ritual prayer tradition, so the oldest dances – with one or two exceptions – are really, really slow. They weren’t meant for an audience. Nobody was watching except the gods. If you watch them now, they can be a little boring because not much happens. They’re so slow and so balanced. It’s a different kind of beauty.”

Sophiline: “Most of the time they stay in one place. Cambodia is not the way it used to be after the Khmer Rouge, when the country was completely destroyed. Now, people have some sophistication, so the art has to match the level the audience demands. Even if the dance is simple, it has to be as sophisticated, as elegant, as it can be.

“Our work isn’t changing classical dance, it’s adding to it. It’s the beginning of a new path, a new form, being created. We’re using new music, different costumes, and experimenting with the way it looks. I call it robam boran chnnaiy – neo-classical, or contemporary classical, dance.”

John: “Another thing that’s new is that, typically, classical dance features gods and goddesses, kings, princess, giants, animals. It’s about mythology. But one of our pieces is a dance with a man and a woman, who could be anybody, even though the male part is played by a female dancer.

Sophiline: “Stained is a piece about the trial by fire in the Ramayana, but in this piece I give the female character a chance to speak, to question, because most of the time we see her as a very modest, ideal woman. She doesn’t talk much and there’s something inside her that’s not revealed, particularly intellectually. Stained is focusing on what she thinks, what she says, what she wants to know. Why do things happen like this? Is it fair? She questions her husband. Usually, the male character is the one who decides things.”

Four pieces will be performed during the evening (“Don’t forget your mosquito repellent,” cautions John). Ream Eyso & Moni Mekhala is an ancient fertility dance that describes the origin of rain and for centuries has been used in ceremonies at the height of the dry season, and Seasons of Migration explores the four stages of culture shock first described by anthropologist Kalvero Oberg. Munkul Lokey is performed to New York composer John Zorn’s lush musical setting of the Song of Songs, perhaps the world’s first erotic verse, and Stained is Sophiline’s interpretation of Neang Seda’s trial by fire from the Reamker epic.

WHO: Khmer Arts
WHAT: 10th anniversary contemporary classical dance performance
WHERE: Khmer Arts Theatre, Street 115, Takhmao
WHEN: 7pm April 7
WHY: Classical dance forms with 21st century edge

 

Posted on April 29, 2012April 1, 2014Categories FeaturesLeave a comment on Ancient no more
Welcome to the Jungle

Welcome to the Jungle

Noor Mahmood almost achieved the unthinkable not so long ago: about to fly first-class to Dubai, the 36-year-old United Arab Emirates national calmly deposited his hand luggage on an x-ray scanner at Bangkok Airport. As the case trundled past security, no one noticed the marmoset, gibbon, Asiatic black bear and four leopards – all drugged and less than two months old – packed tightly inside.

Just as he was about to board, Mahmood felt a hand on his shoulder. He bragged to the arresting wildlife taskforce police officers about having connections with a former Thai prime minister in the hope of being released, but the officers refused to budge and a conviction seemed certain – until, that is, he was released on bail and fled the country.

The scenario is all too familiar to those who work to combat Southeast Asia’s illegal trade in wildlife. Prosecutions are rare; prison sentences even more so. The trade in endangered species is believed to be worth up to $30 billion a year, 25% of which passes through Southeast Asia. And the volume is increasing, according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature’s regional office, but so are efforts to stop it.

Among those making such efforts is Phnom Tamao Wildlife Sanctuary just outside Phnom Penh, a sprawling 2,500-acre safe house for exotic creatures rescued from the clutches of such would-be smugglers. The sanctuary is run by Wildlife Alliance within a protected forest, and is home to a spectacular array of fauna, including the world’s largest captive collections of pileated gibbons and Malayan sun bears. Other rarities include the delightfully named hairy-nosed otter, the slow loris and the knobbly kneed greater adjutant stork, a feathered oddity if ever there was one.

Here, more than 1,200 creatures representing 93 endangered or threatened species preen, posture and play in the safety of leafy enclosures, peered at by 20,000 curious onlookers every year. The most vulnerable are babies which have lost their mothers or been separated from their family groups – and it’s to this end that Sharky Bar is hosting a two-day rockfest this weekend to raise funds for a much-needed nursery.

Chouk the elephant is a case in point: found with his foot torn off by a hunter’s trap, today he romps through Phnom Tamao forest propped up by a prosthetic limb. “Chouk is now on his fourth prosthesis,” says Wildlife Rescue Director Nick Marx. “It’s changed his life radically. Before he had a prosthetic limb, he used to walk in the forest with his big sister and he was getting tired very quickly. He’d stop frequently for a rest and a sleep. As soon as we gave him his first prosthesis, he just took off straight away. He was fine.

“This is exactly why we need money to build a nursery: to keep our animals nicely, with all the love and attention that they need, and the proper care. We do a good job of that at the moment, but we don’t have a specific place for it. We don’t have money to throw away, so we have to use an existing facility, but put it to better use for baby animals, with easy-to-clean tiles and simple utilities such as running water and solar panels to provide electricity. If we don’t get the funds to do this, we won’t stop looking after baby animals, it’s just that we could be doing it better.”

Rolling Stones cover band Stoned Again will headline throughout, with all-girl punk group The Herding Cats making a special appearance on Friday. On Saturday, Stoned Again will be joined by regional rhythm and blues maestro Curtis King and local indie pin-ups the Teaner Turners. Up for grabs via raffle tickets and an auction are everything from stays at Independence Hotel in Sihanoukville and Sokha Angkor Resort in Siem Reap to a Cambodian Country Club membership and jewellery from some of New York’s hottest designers. Rarrrrrgh.

WHO: Stoned Again, Herding Cats, Curtis King, Teaner Turners
WHAT: Wildlife Alliance fundraiser
WHERE: Sharky Bar, St. 130
WHEN: 7pm April 27 and 28
WHY: Because inside you there’s a baby beastie just waiting to get out

 

Posted on April 26, 2012May 12, 2014Categories UncategorizedLeave a comment on Welcome to the Jungle
Reggae riddims arise

Reggae riddims arise

When bassist Sébastien Adnot first played reggae in front of Jamaican friends, they proved a tough crowd. “When I started learning, they told me they couldn’t dance to what I was playing,” says the founder of Cambodia’s first and only ragamuffin dub band, Dub Addiction. “’Try to dance with your fingers,’ they said. That’s how they taught me. They don’t know the names of chords or music theory, it’s all about feeling.” Sébastien taps two fingers lightly on his heart and then his head.

After ten years of being tutored by his hecklers, Sébastien, originally from France, arrived on Cambodian soil in 2011 to begin a stint as resident bass player at the now-defunct Studio 182. “I came here, and everywhere I go I hear reggae music, but there were no reggae bands or musicians, so I had to teach people to play reggae the same way I had been taught.”

Today, Dub Addiction – now recording their second album – count among their vocalists DJ Khla, ‘Cambodia’s tightest ragga MC’ and a staple of the local music scene. “One day, I saw this Khmer guy playing keyboard reggae. I said: That’s fantastic! You play reggae. That’s my music. He said: ‘What’s reggae?’ You’ve never heard of Bob Marley? ‘Who’s Bob Marley?’ Never mind. Can you sing? ‘Yeah, sure…’

“So he starts to play a song for me – and I swear it’s pure, 100% ragamuffin. I found out months later that he was an orphan, raised in a pagoda, and he took his ‘reggae’ from the monks’ chanting. And he’s a star here: he’s on TV every few weeks. All the Khmer people know him. I have a star in my band, which is a gift.”

Along with Sonpore, MC Curly, and Professor Kinski, DJ Khla lays an uplifting veneer of Khmer vocals over the bombastic basslines (Seb) and drums (Toma Willen) of Dub Addiction, booked to play the Sometimes A Great Notion Festival in Oregon, the US, in July. Kae Lhassen adds spooky, spaced-out backing vocals to Sylvie’s keys, and the sound is pinned together by guitar rhythms from Benoit Carre.

“Reggae music is low frequency. We play bass very loud; bass drum very loud, but the guitar is a very small sound so that it doesn’t eat the medium frequencies – the sound of the singer – at all. “That’s why I’m so glad we have these lovely Khmer ladies singing. My music is massive, but if it’s just massive, your spirit will stay on the floor. But with this kind of singing, high frequencies, then your spirit goes into another world. And music is all about telling stories and communicating emotions. If you play reggae, you have to be wicked.”

Not stoned? “No! Exactly the opposite: that’s what I learned from Jamaican people. The first time I performed with a Jamaican, on the day of the concert he didn’t smoke or drink, he went for a swim. He wouldn’t even speak. Before you play reggae, you have to be a warrior.”

WHO: Dub Addiction
WHAT: Reggae riddims
WHERE: Equinox, #3a St. 278
WHEN: 9pm April 7
WHY: Bob Marley would be proud

 

Posted on April 7, 2012April 1, 2014Categories MusicLeave a comment on Reggae riddims arise

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