Look at them

Tonight's performers at the Q&A: LtoR; Setpheap, Mom and Davy

A room full of the great and good of Cambodian dance at Meta House tonight watched a 25-minute piece of contemporary dance by three artists, under the tutelage of director Bob Ruijzendaal. Yon Davy, Mom (aka Pumtheatra Chenda) and Sorn Setpheap gave us their own interpretation of a piece called How Do You Move/What Moves You, no storyline, just a mix of classical and contemporary movements that continues to break new ground for these Cambodian artists. All three performers are part of a collective known as New Cambodian Artists (NCA) and the group will perform two more new pieces in January at Meta House before bringing us the follow up to Look At Us Now, which debuted in May and the video of which was also shown this evening, after a brief Q&A with the dancers and director. Davy and Mom were trained in the classics of Cambodian ballet at the Royal University whilst Setpheap's background was in visual arts and the idea to mix and match artists and influences worked well for me. In the audience - the performance space at Meta House was pitifully small and cramped and my viewing was obscured for much of the show - were contemporary dancer Belle, just back from a gig in India, director Fred Frumberg, Toni Shapiro-Phim and a host of other dancers. Find out more about NCA here.

Look at them

The highlight of my weekend by a country mile, with Belle at Sovanna Phum

A busy day again today with work as usual this morning, followed by a few hours at the Olympic Stadium watching Cambodia Premier League football and then this evening, a front row seat at the premiere of Look At Us Now, a well-attended contemporary dance performance at Sovanna Phum, looking at the struggles faced by dancers in today's Cambodia. The performers were Yon Davy, Khieu Sovannarith, Phumtheara Chenda, Sang Porsda, Va Chamnan, Yim Savann, Phon Sopheap, Kay Sokchan and well-known classical dancer Vuth Chanmoly, who also appeared in Where Elephants Weep recently. The play allowed the artists to express themselves in a variety of vigorous and imaginative ways on stage, though the dialogue was in Khmer so it was difficult for the majority of the Western audience to understand. Contemporary dance in Cambodia is certainly progressing at a rapid pace with this and other recent performances, usually including the star of the scene at the moment, Belle. She wasn't one of the performers in this show as she's been working as artist-in-residence with the French Cultural Center for the last five months, but she was there to lend her support to the dancers and working behind the scenes.

On stage action from Look At Us Now

Vuth Chanmoly provided the closing sequence to Look At Us Now

Looking as proud as punch, and rightly so

Some of the performers take their bow at the end of the dance