Cultural calendar

Belle by Anders Jiras

Classical and contemporary dance are figuring heavily in the Phnom Penh's cultural calendar this month and next. Earlier this week I enjoyed the Cambodia-Japanese collaboration at Parkway under the banner of We're Gonna Go Dancing! and later tonight, the French Cultural Center begin their week-long Lakhaon Festival with nightly traditional performances at Chenla Theatre involving performances from Khmer Arts Ensemble, the School of Fine Arts and the Royal Ballet amongst others. The Khmer Arts Ensemble will hold an open rehearsal at their Takhmau headquarters tomorrow morning from 9am and will perform their work, Ream Eyso & Moni Mekhala at 7pm on Friday 11 September. Next month, also at Chenla, will be the contemporary dance event, Dansez-Roam, on 16, 17, 24 & 25 October. One face who will not be taking part is Chumvan Sodhachivy, or Belle (pictured) as she's better known to all, who spent the first six months of this year as the associate artist with the French Cultural Center and has just returned from a workshop in Taiwan. In a couple of weeks, she will be off to Europe for two months, working with choreographer Emmanuelle Phuon in Brussels and then completing an internship at the unique National Choreographic Center in Montpellier, France. She simply never stops working.