140 Beyond the Apsara 10 Beyond Revival and Preservation: Contemporary Dance in Cambodia Fred Frumberg Ask any well-seasoned traveller to describe Cambodian dance, and the answer might allude to the celestial nymphs that adorn the Angkor Wat temples known as the Apsara that today remain an icon of Cambodian classical dance. Or one might think of the graceful figures immortalized on canvas by Rodin when the Royal Ballet made their first tour to France during the World Expo in 1906. Others might even wonder if Cambodian dance had not been entirely obliterated as a result of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge during the brutal Pol Pot regime from 1975–79 when approximately 90 per cent of all Cambodian classical performers were either killed or died of starvation or disease because of their links to what was considered a decadent class. Cambodian classical dance is very much alive thanks to the efforts of the few artists who survived the genocide either by sheer luck or by hiding their true identities. Great masters such as Ms Em Theay, one of the great court dancers and singers, survived because the leader of her labour camp harboured a dangerous and unspoken love of Cambodian dance. Em Theay would sing for him at night, and sing lullabies to children too young to join the workforce when she became too weak to work. Now in her 70s, Em Theay, born in 1935, continues to work tirelessly at instilling a rigorous discipline to young dancers and musicians, fearful of further loss once she is gone. Thanks directly to her perseverance, two new generations of dancers and musicians have emerged; her two children and six grandchildren are all respected, established performers. Contemporary Dance in Cambodia 141 Mr Proeung Chhieng, the current Vice Rector of the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) and formerly one of the great interpreters of the ‘monkey role’, was studying in North Korea at the onset of the Pol Pot regime. Not wanting to abandon his colleagues and unaware of the extreme atrocities, he returned to Cambodia where he too was assigned to work camps and eventually escaped over the Thai border. He returned immediately after the fall of the Khmer Rouge and was instrumental in re-establishing the Royal University of Fine Arts where he taught a new generation of Kaol monkey dancers, later becoming a very proactive dean of the faculty of choreographic arts. Background Immediately following the fall of the Khmer Rouge, these and other artists put out a call throughout the country to identify their surviving colleagues and in 1980, many artists reunited for the first time in a performance that was both an agonizing recognition of the loss of life, while serving as testimony to the eternal endurance of Cambodia’s great performing arts heritage. Initial efforts by the artists and government included attempts to re-establish small provincial troupes. Lakhaon Kaol, Cambodian classical male masked dance, once had over 30 troupes throughout the country. As of 2008 there are only six, but the very fact that they exist is a direct result of these efforts. The National Theatre was re-established as the Department of Performing Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts with satellite departments set up throughout the country. The department had originally been established in 1966 and reopened soon after the fall of the Khmer Rouge in its previous home at the Tonle Bassac Theatre in Phnom Penh but with only 10 per cent of its former members. The School of Fine Arts reopened towards the end of 1980 in an abandoned rice silo several miles outside of Phnom Penh. The school had enjoyed a rich history that began in 1919 as a conservatory that was revered as one of the foremost arts institutions in Southeast Asia. The conservatory was established as the University of Fine Arts in 1965 under King Sihanouk. As with all other educational institutions in Cambodia, the university was closed down at the onset of the Pol Pot regime and reopened its doors in 1980 as The School of Arts. In 1988, the school was re-established as the University of Fine Arts and in 1993 renamed the Royal University of Fine Arts. The international community recognized 142 Beyond the Apsara Name of Show: Khmeropédies II Performers: Dancers — Penh Chunmit and Hem Linda, Rap Singer — Vy Chamroeun; choreographed by Emmanuèle Phuon (2009) Photographer: Anders Jiras Contemporary Dance in Cambodia 143 these efforts and stepped forward to help. Crucial funding and logistical assistance gradually trickled in by major foundations such as Rockefeller, the Asian Cultural Council, the Ford Foundation and Toyota, among others, forming vital relationships that continue today. It was a slow and arduous process with the various organizations trying to monitor where the needs were and establish priorities in what was precariously unknown territory. There are 20 forms of Cambodian dance, theatre and music, most of which were represented by the small community of surviving artists, all of whom were obviously committed to resurrecting the remnants of their particular area of expertise with little or no resources, within an infrastructure that was in utter shambles. In 1984, the government gave the school a piece of land in the north of Phnom Penh that had previously been an army barracks. It was entirely inadequate as a campus but it provided the means for artists to regroup in a central location as attempts continued to form some semblance of order. The new location of the school, together with the newly established department of performing arts at the previously abandoned Tonle Bassac Theatre, provided two crucial gathering points for artists who were still finding their way home from the chaos that ensued after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Various non-government organizations, embassies and private donors did what they could to improve the new campus by constructing new buildings, repairing old ones and securing essential material such as musical instruments, practice costumes and office equipment. In 1993, a significant new partnership was formed with the Rockefeller Foundation in collaboration with the Asian Cultural Council in establishing the Mentorship Program, a project devised by a small community of devoted artists who were committed to placing classical dance and music at the forefront of the revival process. The programme was designed to help the ailing University of Fine Arts begin to establish and sustain a realistic curriculum in which a new generation of practitioners can benefit from the knowledge retained by the few surviving masters. It provided the means by which the elder masters could pass on their knowledge to the young teachers in a formal, structured classroom situation. The program grew to include other forms of performing arts such as Bassac opera, Yike traditional music theatre and others as well as providing funds needed to improve the administrative infrastructure. 144 Fred Frumberg UNESCO had a strong presence in Cambodia since the early 1960s but closed its doors in 1975. During the 1980s, it continued to initiate small-scale projects mostly through existing organizations. In 1989, it was given the task of monitoring the Angkor temples but it was not until 1991 that it formally reopened its Phnom Penh office. In the mid-1990s, the Phnom Penh office recruited a number of UN volunteers to initiate programs in the intangible cultural sector including the performing arts, with some projects being supported in close collaboration with the University of Fine Arts through its Japan ‘Funds in Trust’ programme. It continues today as a major partner to the Cambodian Ministry of Culture, but with limited projects in the performing arts. Throughout this period, numerous performing arts-related international non-government organizations have been established to join in this cultural renaissance including Amrita Performing Arts, Sovanna Phum Arts Association, Khmer Arts, Cambodian Living Arts, Reyum Institute of Arts and Culture, the Canadian sponsored Cambodian Support Group, the French Cultural Center, and others. There have also been a number of non-government projects initiated entirely by Cambodians such as the Apsara Arts Association which was created by Vong Metry, a classical dancer who recognized the need to bring the revival and preservation process to the poorest of citizens who would never have the chance to access larger government institutions such as the University of Fine Arts. Metry’s programme began in 1997 in her backyard with approximately 20 students and volunteer teachers from the university. Her efforts were observed by the director of the Tokyo-based Kasumiso Foundation who, in 2000, was so moved by her commitment that he built a proper school and dormitory attached to Metry’s home. The school continues to be supported by private donors and contributions from public performances and today boasts over 100 students and a substantial staff of teachers and administrators. In 2002, RUFA was divided into two different schools. Until then, students only studied until the age of 18, at which point they received a baccalaureate degree, mirroring a system rooted in the French colonial period. In its new incarnation, a proper BA programme was established and the younger students became part Contemporary Dance in Cambodia 145 of the new Secondary School of Fine Arts. In 2005, the campus fell victim to a land deal and was moved to a remote area outside the city. The student and faculty population dropped dramatically as few could afford the additional petrol needed to drive the extra distance. The situation improved somewhat in early 2007 when HM King Norodom Sihamoni donated several school buses. Despite the ongoing challenges facing the university, today there is a new generation of classical dancers with over 400 students enrolled at RUFA and SSFA (as of fall 2008). The young teachers have taken up the reins previously held by their masters in an ongoing process still overseen by the surviving elder masters who continue to teach and supervise rehearsals and classes with tireless commitment well into their 70s. With a teaching style that may seem to border on cruelty, it, in fact, represents desperation to pass on their valuable knowledge before they are gone. To watch, for example, master dancer Em Theay conduct a rehearsal, is testimony to the profound commitment and determination of all masters to maintain the accuracy and detail of the classical dance and music repertory. They also seek to instil in the new generation a profound respect and appreciation for the royal roots of their dance heritage and their responsibility to uphold its values to the Cambodian public. As an oral heritage passed down through a system of mentorship, there was little documentation of Cambodian dance and that which was recorded was mostly destroyed during the war. Numerous projects have been initiated over the years to support the living masters in recording their memories and nurturing back to life much of the lost repertory from the court, the Reamker and folk traditions. These three forms represent the full range of Cambodian dance. The Reamker is the legend most often recounted by Cambodian classical dance Robam Boran (the female form) and Lakhaon Kaol (the male form) and the stories most loved by the general public. Court dance is interpreted through a myriad of repertory based on Cambodian legends such as that of the renowned Apsara. Up until the 1960s, classical court dance was mostly confined to the palace and the form most known to the general public was folk dance which continues to be a very popular form especially in the provinces where folk dance repertory represents all major holidays, changes of season and annual harvests. This task of documentation has been one of the major components of the 146 Fred Frumberg previously stated Rockefeller Mentorship programme. In addition, a two-year research and documentation project (1998–2000) was funded by the Toyota Foundation in which 12 RUFA teachers worked in close collaboration with masters both at RUFA and from the provinces to create the beginnings of a notation system for the thousands of gestures that make up the vocabulary of classical court and Kaol dance. Several preliminary teaching guides resulted from that programme, with more comprehensive versions later published through support from a UNESCO/Japan Funds in Trust programme and the Rockefeller Foundation. Beyond Revival and Preservation The ultimate acknowledgement of this painstaking process came in 2003 when Cambodian classical dance was awarded World Heritage Status by UNESCO. That honour was repeated in 2005 when Cambodian large shadow puppetry was awarded the same status. Such an honourable recognition has mixed blessings as one might ask the question: What is the next step once the process of revival and preservation of a nearly annihilated dance tradition has taken on its own momentum? How does one keep the dance form from becoming a precious gem hidden within a glass museum showcase? UNESCO’s prestigious proclamation has kept some dancers and cultural leaders from addressing these issues. Instead of allowing it to become a living, breathing part of Cambodia’s contemporary performing arts scene which responds to an everchanging social and political landscape, it remains vulnerable to stagnation and being permanently frozen within the process of revival and preservation. Young artists in Cambodia have begun to ask these questions and the road to finding the answers is fraught with obstacles. Cambodian dancers who have had the opportunity to practice their craft outside of Cambodia, mostly in the United States and Europe, have been the first to respond to these questions. Ken Kunthea, an outstanding young dancer specializing in the female role, relocated to Belgium in the mid-1990s. Confronted with extreme cultural shock, Kunthea was even more determined not to lose connection with her dance roots. She met Emmanuèle Phuon, a choreographer and dancer who was born in Cambodia but moved to France as a child, later relocating to Belgium. The two artists began to collaborate in work that was rooted in their Contemporary Dance in Cambodia 147 mutual classical dance backgrounds while breaking new ground through Emmanuèle’s extensive experience in contemporary dance with such artists as Martha Clarke and Joachim Schlemer. The merging of their diverse backgrounds and aesthetics provided the framework in which both were able to further develop their individual vocabulary while giving each the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to the Cambodian classical form. Through this experience, Kunthea created her first contemporary dance in a piece called Frames of Life, in which she explored her classical dance training as to how it relates to nature — the basis of many of the basic gestures of the extensive Cambodian classical dance vocabulary. Emmanuèle then choreographed a work for Kunthea entitled Khmeropédies Part I, in which the dancer explores the conflict between honouring her masters and the natural, yet tabooed, desire to break with tradition. Chiem Yiphun fled Cambodia with the surviving members of her family at the age of three and resettled in Belgium. Now in her early 30s, Yiphun is reconnecting with her Cambodian heritage through an entirely different medium. Enthralled by European pop culture and inspired by the video images of Lara Croft, Yiphun has made an enormous impact locally by rediscovering her Cambodian roots though a medium she is more familiar with — hip hop. Her work Apsara revisits the ghosts of her family’s tragic past through a combination of mime, breakdancing, traditional Cambodian dance, and Brazilian caper. The work created a sensation with both public and press in Paris in early 2008 at the Tarmac tête a tête hip hop festival. One of the first pioneers of this process was Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, a member of the first class to graduate from RUFA when it was reinstated after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. She later moved to the US where she and her husband established the Khmer Arts Academy in the Cambodian enclave of Long Beach, California. In 2007, they returned to Cambodia where they set up a permanent base with a troupe of over 30 dancers and musicians. Sophiline is classically trained and utterly faithful to her dance legacy while infusing it with new ideas and energy. Her works have included a Cambodian classical dance interpretation of Shakespeare’s Othello entitled Samritechak, and Pamina Devi, based on Mozart’s The Magic Flute that premiered in December 2007 in Vienna as part of Peter Sellars’ New Crowned Hope Festival, commemorating the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. 148 Fred Frumberg Using Shakespeare or Mozart as a cultural bridge is of course not new. Their works have proven adaptable to virtually every culture, time and place, as is the case with many classical art forms. However, for Cambodia, such initiatives have provided crucial links towards establishing a fully contemporary dance language. One can argue if these particular works are contemporary dance or not. If you are new to classical Cambodian dance and were to walk unknowingly into a rehearsal of either of the above mentioned works, you might think you were observing a rehearsal of a scene from the Reamker. So faithful is the work to the classical form that only the most seasoned connoisseur will notice the nuances in the choreography. However, when viewed in its entirety, the bridge it creates between the classical and contemporary worlds are at once very new, subtle and significant and by the very definition, contemporary, yet, at its heart, faithful to the classical form. Nonetheless, the groundbreaking and innovative aspects of this work has provoked untold conflict and rifts in the Cambodian dance community among teachers, students, practitioners, and ministry officials, in particular among elder masters who remain apprehensive and protective of their still unfinished task of fully reviving Cambodian dance. Many of these arguments echo the sentiments that emerged from the UNESCO classification of world heritage status on Cambodian classical dance. The fears and anxieties are based on a misconceived notion that creativity and innovation contradict tradition. One immediate contradiction to this commotion is the fact that the treasured Apsara is, contrary to popular belief, by no means a classical iconic dance handed down from King Jayavarman’s Angkorian period but rather, a contemporary interpretation of the temple engravings choreographed in 1962 by the late Queen Kossomak for her granddaughter Princess Buppha Devi, the Royal Ballet’s prima ballerina of the time. The classical style in general has been constantly evolving and few of the old repertory predate the colonial period. This discourse is not an attempt to define what contemporary dance is or to make comparisons between contemporary dance, modern and postmodern trends. Cambodia is by no means the first country to have nearly lost its culture as a result of genocide or other forms of political upheaval. My argument is strictly in the context of modern-day Cambodia, and what I can say with Contemporary Dance in Cambodia 149 absolute certainty is that Cambodia is ready to be included in the international contemporary dance community and young Cambodian dancers are seeking tools with which they can create their own contemporary dance vocabulary. Several examples of this trend will be highlighted later in this article. Revival and preservation of still lost repertory will remain an urgent priority for many years to come but the remarkable resilience and international recognition of Cambodian classical dance indicates that the mindset currently consumed by the notion of ‘revival and preservation’ must now shift to include one that emphasizes creativity and productivity. The two paths can and must continue to evolve in harmony side by side, as they do in many of the world’s great dance traditions. Unlike our regional counterparts in such countries as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia who have sought for years to strike a balance between preserving their traditions and developing their own contemporary dance styles, Cambodian dancers are, for all the reasons I have indicated, far behind in this process and are consequently extremely vulnerable to outside influence. Numerous contemporary and modern dance practitioners from the West have offered to visit Cambodia to ‘teach’ their craft to young Cambodian dancers. These efforts have been met with various degrees of success; some never materialize as it becomes clear to all involved how much more groundwork needs to be laid in both practical and pedagogical approaches before we can possibly begin to discuss the techniques of the likes of Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham. Amrita Performing Arts (derived from the Sanskrit word meaning ‘eternity’) an international non-government organization based in Phnom Penh, with US non-profit status’ was established in July 2003. Its mission since its inception has been to promote, preserve and sustain Cambodia’s ancient performing arts heritage while developing contemporary creative expression in dance, music and theatre. Amrita Performing Arts has been an active player in helping to lay the groundwork for the delicate process in the ongoing dialogue on the development of contemporary dance in Cambodia. Amrita has tried to identify practitioners from the region whose own contemporary dance styles have grown from similar struggles between preservation and creativity and whose work is deeply rooted in their own ancient traditions. Our 150 Fred Frumberg first substantial attempt was in March 2005 with a work titled Revitalizing Monkeys and Giants, a contemporary interpretation of Cambodian classical male masked dance known as Lakhaon Kaol that we created in collaboration with Pornrat Damrhung, Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. Pichet Klunchun, an established Thai dancer and choreographer with a strong background in both Thai classical Kaol and contemporary dance, worked with six Cambodian Kaol dancers and five Cambodian classical musicians in creating a new work that grew out of two months of exchange and intense dialogue. We invited two Kaol masters to be part of the workshop as advisors. The process was fraught with conflict as the masters looked on in great apprehension and the dialogue was often charged with accusations of pilfering the Kaol tradition. In the end, it was extremely successful as both an artistic endeavour and as a study in cross-cultural collaboration between two nations known for their ancient cultural conflicts. Young dancers and elder masters alike united in praising the work for succeeding in finding a new voice for Cambodian dance while respecting and honouring the classical form. The work went on to tour to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, where it received much critical acclaim. At the 2007 TARI Dance Festival in Kuala Lumpur, reviewer Lim How Ngean wrote: … Cambodian dancers were dressed in simple black T-shirts and maroon fishermen pants, but were wonderfully differentiated by the physical characterizations of monkeys and giants. Although couched as contemporary work, Klunchun’s dynamic choreography included finer details of the Khmer classical dance vocabulary. A much quicker tempo in the movements signaled a departure from traditional ways while characterization was purely manifested through the body rather than fussy and elaborate costumes and masks. APA’s excerpt from Kaol was a brilliant showcase of contemporary dance drama.1 In January 2006, we welcomed the Javanese dancer and choreographer Miroto Martinus to Cambodia to conduct several weeks of workshops with young RUFA dancers as part of an Arts Network Asia project. This culminated in a brief but provoking public 1 http://www.kakiseni.com. Contemporary Dance in Cambodia 151 showing of an untitled experimental work that brought together the Javanese and Cambodian classical traditions with a striking contemporary line. At the end of the workshop, in a discussion between Miroto and the artists, one of our senior male Kaol dancers, Soeur Thavarak, the only elder master to participate in that contemporary dance workshop, asked Miroto how his elder masters in Java reacted to his groundbreaking choreography. Miroto replied that his teachers are mostly supportive and in fact pleased to see how the traditions have inspired such innovation. To this, Thavarak voiced his deep frustration that Cambodian dancers cannot yet dare to do this kind of work on their own initiative. Young dancers are still under the shadow of masters who shun experiments which break from tradition and his hope is that with more such workshops, young dancers might eventually find the courage to trust their own creative sensibilities and finally realize that creativity is not intended to contradict or threaten their ancient dance heritage but rather to give it a context in which it can live and flourish well into the future. This would allow their own contemporary dance style to live in tandem with the traditions of the past. This declaration was all the more extraordinary and poignant for the fact that it came from one of the very elder masters who had previously shunned contemporary deviation from the classical path. Soeur Thavarak was one of the six dancers in Revitalizing Monkeys and Giants — a role he accepted as a means of challenging his own doubts about the merging of these two worlds, out of which he has become an unstoppable force and spokesperson for this movement. One of our most significant steps so far in these efforts took place in January 2006 when several members of the World Dance Alliance (WDA) from Malaysia, Australia and India visited Cambodia to conduct contemporary dance workshops for approximately 30 of our most enthusiastic young dancers. On that occasion the president of WDAAP, Professor Anis Md Nor, gave a presentation on the significance of the WDA and officially welcomed Cambodia as a new member. This was an exciting day for the young dancers as the occasion clearly marked the beginning of many new opportunities, reinstating the belief that more members of the international modern dance community would join our efforts as the borders continue to break down not only within the 152 Fred Frumberg region but across them as well. Through the WDA network, our burgeoning community of young contemporary dancers has had the opportunity to travel and interact as well as perform with many of their counterparts in Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia, Canada, and Singapore, to name only a few. These efforts have given the artists the confidence needed to begin to embark on their own initiatives, creating work that is entirely their own — entirely Cambodian. Phon Sopheap is one of our great lead monkey dancers; he has collaborated with Pichet Klunchun, Peter Chin and Emmanuèle Phuon and taken part in numerous contemporary dance workshops in the US, Indonesia and Thailand. He created his first solo work as part of the 2007 International forum for young choreographers in Surabaya Indonesia. Out of the 20 new works created at the workshop, Sopheap’s was one of the seven selected to be presented at the Indonesian Dance Festival in Jakarta the following week. The work, A Monkey’s Mask, based on the dancer’s struggle between his own identity and that of his traditional mask, has also been seen at festivals in Singapore and Thailand. Chumvan Sodhachivy is one of the great young interpreters of the male role of the all-female classical court dance form. Sodhachivy, also known as Belle, has performed in contemporary works under the guidance of choreographers from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, France, and the US and has participated in workshops in situations as extreme as the Asia–Europe Foundation’s Point to Point dance workshop in Poland and Bob Wilson’s Watermill Center in New York. After this intense period of external artistic saturation, Belle is now creating her own work including the premier in October 2008 at the French Cultural Center’s Phnom Penh theatre festival of The History of Preah Kongkea, an inspired, original work that combines classical Cambodian dance with cutting edge contemporary reinterpretation of the classical gestures as well as numerous forms of traditional Cambodian theatre including shadow puppetry. Chey Chankethya is a young master of the female role and a teacher at Phnom Penh’s Secondary School of Fine Arts. Kethya was part of a three-month dance management program at UCLA in 2006 and since then has emerged as one of the strongest leaders in Cambodia’s dance community. Having been exposed to many contemporary dance workshops, performing extensively around the world and giving lectures on dance education in Cambodia, Contemporary Dance in Cambodia 153 Kethya recently founded her own contemporary dance company in Phnom Penh called Compass dance ensemble consisting of 10 of her colleagues. Though unable to sustain the ensemble on a full-time basis, they meet regularly at Amrita’s studio, exchanging ideas and creating new works that are presented on an ad hoc basis, entirely funded from their own salaries from other dance performances or as teachers and ticket revenue from previous performances. These are only a few of the more vivid examples. The list goes on and despite all the odds, the trickle down effect to the larger community of young dancers is truly inspiring. The process remains slow and the general situation precariously fragile. The success must be measured on a scale very particular to this country’s circumstances and yet by anyone’s standards, the sheer resilience and determination is remarkable. I have been in Cambodia since June 1997. As an American schooled in Western theatre and opera, it has been a humbling challenge to discover with the encouragement and blessing of my Cambodian colleagues how best to represent and support this amazing culture without falling into the obvious colonialist traps of superimposing what one might think is best onto a rather vulnerable community. Based on the reactions we have seen so far, both locally and internationally, we seem to be heading in the right direction; we can only hope and trust and continue to ask these pertinent questions on a daily basis. In my earlier days, whenever I campaigned to raise funds and awareness for Cambodian performing arts, my rationale was based on tapping into the huge well of support and empathy following Cambodia’s genocidal history. In this article I have chosen to give only limited information on the atrocities of the 1970s as crucial background to my argument. It will be many years before the wounds inflicted by the Khmer Rouge are erased or even begin to fade into the background, but the development of Cambodian dance cannot continue to fall victim to its own tragic legacy. Today, young artists in Cambodia, teachers, students and performers alike, are taking responsibility for their own cultural destiny. They are also at a level whereby they can compete with the world’s best and want to be judged accordingly. They still need support and encouragement; however, that support must not be born out of pity but rather out of celebration for one of the world’s great cultural revivals. 154 Fred Frumberg Note: This article is based on a shorter work presented at the Toronto WDA Global Assembly in July 2006 and later printed in Dialogues in Dance Discourse — Creating Dance in Asia Pacific, published by the Cultural Centre of the University of Malaya, Malaysia. I wish to acknowledge Robert Turnbull 2 for his support and insightful views in the original writing of this text. Fred Frumberg moved to Cambodia in June 1997 as a consultant with UNESCO, to assist in the revival and preservation of Cambodian traditional and contemporary performing arts. His task has been to built capacity in all aspects of theatre management, from the staging of public performances to research and documentation and organizing international tours and exchange programmes throughout Asia, Europe, the US, and Australia. In July 2003 Fred founded Amrita Performing Arts, a nonprofit organization based in Phnom Penh, to continue these efforts and introduce an element of contemporary creativity. Prior to working in Cambodia, Fred spent 15 years working in opera houses and theatres throughout the USA and Europe, assisting stage directors such as Peter Sellers, Francesca Zambello and Deborah Warner. He was Head of Production at the Paris Opera from 1994–97, a staff stage director for the Netherlands Opera in the late 1980s and production manager for two World Festivals of Sacred Music in Los Angeles in 1999 and 2002 produced by Judy Mitoma of UCLA’s Center for Intercultural Performance. u 2 Since moving to Cambodia in 1997, Robert Turnbull has written extensively on culture and travel in Southeast Asia. His writings include the chapter ‘A Burned-out Theater’ in Leakthina Chau-Pech Ollier and Tim Winter (eds), Expressions of Cambodia: The Politics of Tradition, Modernity and Change, London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2006.