Cambodian dance blossoms in book by Chatfield man

Talk tonight
Paul Cravath will talk about his book, "Earth in Flower," and traditional Cambodian dance theater at 7 tonight at the St. Charles Community Center, 830 Whitewater Ave., St. Charles. Admission is free.

6/29/2009
By Tom Weber
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

ST. CHARLES -- For Paul Cravath, Cambodia conjures up images of beauty and death.

Cravath, a native of Chatfield, arrived in Cambodia during the 1975 war that is the subject of the film, "The Killing Fields," to conduct research on traditional Cambodian dance theater.

Despite the war and death raging around him, he was able to document and preserve the history of the artform, and has now published a book, "Earth in Flower," about Cambodian dance drama.

"I arrived 11 days after the siege of the city (Phnom Penh) started," Cravath recalled. He was one of the few westerners in the city, and managed to get himself, and his research materials, out before the Khmer Rouge genocide began in April 1975.

Cravath graduated from Chosen Valley High School in 1962 and from Luther College in 1966. He went to India as a Fulbright tutor, spent some time in Tokyo, and along the way became interested in Asian theater traditions.

"I had never taken a theater or drama class," he said. But after earning a master of fine arts degree from Tulane University, Cravath went to the University of Hawaii to study Asian theater. While he was a graduate student in Hawaii, he had the opportunity to go to Cambodia and observe, first-hand, not only the royal dance company and training school, but also the violence of a country torn by a vicious war.

These days, Cambodia has been out of the news almost as long as Cravath's dissertation languished before being published.

"I'm really glad the book is published, because it was a doctoral dissertation that lived under my bed for 20 years," said Cravath, who will give a presentation about Cambodian dance drama tonight in St. Charles.

The book, which is intended primarily as a scholarly reference, is regarded as the major English-language source on Cambodian dance.

"In my talk, I'll talk about the book and how it was written, being in Cambodia in 1975, and I'll talk about the artform itself, what it looks like," he said.

Cravath has been a professor of drama at Leeward Community College in Honolulu for 20 years. He returns each year to southeastern Minnesota to visit family and enjoy the summer weather.

"Minnesota in the summer is very, very beautiful," he said. "I can't come in the winter because I'm teaching -- and it's so cold here."

Web link: Earth In Flower