I am making a 'walking dancer' (Nieng) that moves her arms, and a butterfly. The dancer is about a foot high. We've decided to go to a performance this evening. Performances are $10 each which is how they make their money. (We get this paid for by the Khmer Project).
Returning to the House for lunch we encountered a large political rally being held on the Russian Boulevard just outside our Apt. Building. The cooks have all gone to the rally. They play taped speeches, applause and music at top volume on continuous loop. All loudspeakers in private homes here are turned up very loud, apparently to chase away death spirits. It is said that the leade of the National Rescue Party, who has been in exile in France, returned to Phnom Penh today.
The hide.
Sticking the photocopies to the hide.
Getting started. Punching holes.
This afternoon we have a Khmer lesson and the first of a 'classical dance, lesson.
The Khmer lesson was excellent and informative. There is no precise spelling to speak of(!) but you can learn the quirks quite quickly. I enjoyed it and thought the lady teacher very patient and clever to be able to do both, though she had a heavy accent which meant she often 'dropped' the ends of the words in English. Khnom mork bpii Anglais. I come from England.
View from the offices of Projects Abroad Cambodia, st. 122.
The Apsara dance is the same dance as illustrated in the bas-reliefs on the walls of Angkor. It is listed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage of Cambodia and they are very proud of it. The directrice at the Apsara Arts Centre is a pre-war ex-Royal dancer who lives on the premises. She is a very graceful lady and looks the part. Apsara dancing is funded however when funds are low the children can no longer stay or eat at the centre. They start at four or five years, boys and girls but the teaching does not seem to be as strict as some countries 'classical dance' can be! They have toured and are going to leave for South Korea shortly.
There are also musical instruments and monkey dances to learn. We watched one boy who was excellent at the monkey dance, leaping about and totally believable. A natural on stage. He also played the drums. The dancers sing to themselves during training but others s ing for them offstage during performances. We were watching the daily training sessions.
The centre itself is a traditional wooden stilt house with an elongated back turned into a stage, with open carved balcony sides. It sits in the middle of a canal from which other dwellers have been banished. It is a little horrifying hearing it called a canal as the water, despite the happily growing lotus flowers and taro, is black and full of rubbish. The breeze comes in across the balcony and is very pleasant when not smelling of rubbish (which could be worse I suppose).
That evening we took a big group and headed back to the Sovannaphum Arts Assoc. for an actual performance. My idea! It was wonderful, despite not being sure of the story, which was an excerpt from the Ramayana. We received a plot description in French but it did not shed a lot of light for anyone. However you could guess at it, love, betrayal, battles etc. That was the second half. The first half of the hour long performance was 'contemporary'. It was actually brilliant, atmospheric, held the audiences's attention, and beautiful. A bat flew out of the stage at he beginning and when an audience member used the loo the light flooded the audience and everyone knew someone was in there. But they created an atmosphere with sheets to project the light onto all around the audience. They flapped in the warm breeze, loud drums and chanting, sometimes very rhythmic. And excellent monkey dances!
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