Two Cambodian ballet premieres; one Cambodian dance praised internationally; the contemporary work of a world-renowned choreographer; and a music and dance show by an award-winning Malaysian company.
This is what the French Cultural Center will be offering during the eighth annual Nuits d’Angkor festival held from Jan 31 through Feb 2.
Organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture under the patronage of King Norodom Sihamoni, the Nuits d’Angkor will take place along Angkor Wat’s facade.
The event will start Jan 31 with “Down by the River” performed by France’s Centre choreographique National Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais. The contemporary dance was choreographed by Carolyn Carlson, a US-born dancer who was named to France’s prestigious “Legion d’honneur” in 2000 and became the first dancer to receive the Golden Lion Award at Italy’s Venice Biennale art festival in 2006.
After her work, the Culture Ministry’s dancers will present Preah Chenvong. This legend of a prince whose sword is stolen by a white monkey and ends up in the hands of a giant was created in the 1960s by the King’s grandmother, Queen Sisowath Kossamak, said National Theater choreographer Pen Sok Huon, who has adapted a 45-minute excerpt of the ballet for the event.
On Feb 1, Carlson’s dance will be performed again and followed by Cambodian choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro’s “Seasons of Migration,” staged by Shapiro’s Khmer Arts Academy’s company. The ballet speaks of the difficulties immigrants face in their country of adoption. Created in 2004, this classical ballet premiered that year in Cambodia and has since toured the US and been featured in Malaysia and Japan.
On Feb 2, Inner Space Performing Arts—a group of musicians and dancers described as “multiple award-winning wunderkinds” in their home country, Malaysia—will present “Kathak Extreme,” applying an exuberant approach to classical dance forms from North India. The Ministry of Culture will afterwards stage Tep Sodachan, the tale of a deity forced to spend time as a human and help a poor man escape servitude. Choreographer Soth Somaly of the Royal University of Fine Arts said that she and RUFA’s teachers have turned an excerpt of the 1960s ballet into a new classical work.
Since the first Nuits d’Angkor—held on the night of Dec 31, 1999, to welcome the millennium—the festival has taken place in December. For its 2007 edition however, the French Cultural Center has had to reschedule due to the light-and-sound cultural show that a Thai interest organized from Nov 24 through Jan 20 in cooperation with the Culture and Tourism ministries.
Asked whether the change of month and light-and-sound show may affect Nuits d’Angkor attendance, center Director Alain Arnaudet said Thursday that, since the dances have “all the rigor and beauty of pure creation,” the Nuits d’Angkor should stand the competition.
