Dancers take part in a performance of "Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute" by Sophiline Cheam Shapiro in this undated handout photo. Performances will take place through Oct. 14 at the Joyce Theater in New York. Photographer: John Shapiro/Khmer Arts Academy via Bloomberg News 
Dancers take part in a performance of "Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute" by Sophiline Cheam Shapiro in this undated handout photo. Performances will take place through Oct. 14 at the Joyce Theater in New York. Photographer: John Shapiro/Khmer Arts Academy via Bloomberg News By Robert Hilferty
Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Decked out in bejeweled costumes of golden silk with headdresses that look like miniature temples, the dancers retell the story of Mozart's ``The Magic Flute'' -- without the music and a few other surprises.
For starters, there are no guys in ``Pamina Devi'' now at the Joyce Theater in New York through the weekend. All parts are played by females who move with the hypnotizing deliberateness of a Southeast Asian dance tradition dating back 1,000 years.
The pungent oboes, xylophones and drums add a piquant flavor.
``Pamina Devi'' is the kind of Cambodian classical dance project that Fred Frumberg, executive director of the Amrita Performing Arts, has nurtured during the past decade.
Ballet dancers who had fled the Khmer Rouge during its years of murder and destruction introduced him to the art form when he was living in Paris.
An assistant to such directors as Peter Sellars and Francesca Zambello, Frumberg was working at the Bastille Opera in Paris at the time and looking for something new.
He joined Unesco as a volunteer and became part of a community of foreigners devoted to helping the Cambodians recover their heritage. Four years ago, he set up Amrita, which has a U.S. nonprofit status. His first grant, from the Rockefeller Foundation, allowed him to set up in Phnom Penh. New grants now allow the company to work with young artists.
``What impressed me was the sheer resilience of Cambodian classical dance, the fact that it was able to bounce back to life after near annihilation during the Khmer Rouge,'' Frumberg says.
Killing Fields
Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, the choreographer of ``Pamina Devi,'' barely survived the killing fields as a child. In her deepest misery, when she barely had enough to eat, she found inspiration and solace in the celestial dancers that appear on Cambodian temples. Now she shuttles between Los Angeles and Takhmao, Cambodia.
``Sophiline had created this amazing work called `Samritechak,' a Cambodian classical dance interpretation of `Othello,''' Frumberg says. ``My organization then helped premiere it in Cambodia.''
Frumberg introduced ``Samritechak'' to director Sellars, who brought it to the Venice Biennale in 2000 and then commissioned ``Pamina Devi'' for a Mozart festival in Vienna last year.
``I'm now developing a new piece based on people interviewed by the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which supplies lots of the information being used in the current Khmer Rouge trials,'' Frumberg says. ``We want to perform this in the provinces of Cambodia for Cambodians.''
He still loves taking friends to Angkor Wat, Cambodia's most famous temple. ``There's a certain bend in the road where you see the first tower of that temple,'' says Frumberg. ``Amazingly, after 30 visits, there is still that little extra beat my heart takes when I see that tower.''
``Pamina Devi'' runs through Oct. 14 at the Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave., Manhattan. Information: +1-212-242-0800; http://www.joyce.org . To learn more about Amrita: http://www.amritaperformingarts.org .
(Robert Hilferty is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this story: Robert Hilferty in New York at
rhilferty@verizon.net
For starters, there are no guys in ``Pamina Devi'' now at the Joyce Theater in New York through the weekend. All parts are played by females who move with the hypnotizing deliberateness of a Southeast Asian dance tradition dating back 1,000 years.
The pungent oboes, xylophones and drums add a piquant flavor.
``Pamina Devi'' is the kind of Cambodian classical dance project that Fred Frumberg, executive director of the Amrita Performing Arts, has nurtured during the past decade.
Ballet dancers who had fled the Khmer Rouge during its years of murder and destruction introduced him to the art form when he was living in Paris.
An assistant to such directors as Peter Sellars and Francesca Zambello, Frumberg was working at the Bastille Opera in Paris at the time and looking for something new.
He joined Unesco as a volunteer and became part of a community of foreigners devoted to helping the Cambodians recover their heritage. Four years ago, he set up Amrita, which has a U.S. nonprofit status. His first grant, from the Rockefeller Foundation, allowed him to set up in Phnom Penh. New grants now allow the company to work with young artists.
``What impressed me was the sheer resilience of Cambodian classical dance, the fact that it was able to bounce back to life after near annihilation during the Khmer Rouge,'' Frumberg says.
Killing Fields
Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, the choreographer of ``Pamina Devi,'' barely survived the killing fields as a child. In her deepest misery, when she barely had enough to eat, she found inspiration and solace in the celestial dancers that appear on Cambodian temples. Now she shuttles between Los Angeles and Takhmao, Cambodia.
``Sophiline had created this amazing work called `Samritechak,' a Cambodian classical dance interpretation of `Othello,''' Frumberg says. ``My organization then helped premiere it in Cambodia.''
Frumberg introduced ``Samritechak'' to director Sellars, who brought it to the Venice Biennale in 2000 and then commissioned ``Pamina Devi'' for a Mozart festival in Vienna last year.
``I'm now developing a new piece based on people interviewed by the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which supplies lots of the information being used in the current Khmer Rouge trials,'' Frumberg says. ``We want to perform this in the provinces of Cambodia for Cambodians.''
He still loves taking friends to Angkor Wat, Cambodia's most famous temple. ``There's a certain bend in the road where you see the first tower of that temple,'' says Frumberg. ``Amazingly, after 30 visits, there is still that little extra beat my heart takes when I see that tower.''
``Pamina Devi'' runs through Oct. 14 at the Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave., Manhattan. Information: +1-212-242-0800; http://www.joyce.org . To learn more about Amrita: http://www.amritaperformingarts.org .
(Robert Hilferty is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this story: Robert Hilferty in New York at
rhilferty@verizon.net
9 comments:
What is a bunch of cracked pots?
i think you are croc head. you idiot basterd. stay away from this comment.
just keep on working, all khmer people are support work wonderfully. Thanks.
Noope, anyone who thinks Khmer art is Mozart is a cracked pot.
What about the blank head siam and viet If khmer art is cracked pot?
Those are our brothers, and we all belong together forever.
10:55 PM, You are a bigger IDIOT than I thought if you think siam and viet are your brothers. They pretend to be your brothers so they can take all the khmer lands. Wake up.
I hate to tell you this, dude, but I foresee in my crystal ball that Indochina will become a melting pot of Chinese, Lao, Thai, Burmese, and Viet, and it will be successful also. That is its destiny, and no one can't stop it. Therefore, if you are a racist, I recommend that you hang yourself or something because there won't be any room for people like you in it. Do you know what I mean?
Shut the fuck up man! you don't know shit do you? go to work like normal people.
So, what did I missed, proffessor?
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