Khmer Arts Academy
Khmer Arts Academy artists grace the stage in resplendent costumes to tell the legend of gods, demons and apsaras in the creation of Cambodia.
Legend has it that apsaras, or heavenly dancers, were born when the gods and demons churned a sea of milk by pulling at opposite ends of the divine serpent, Vasuki. The apsaras, who appear on the walls of Cambodia’s national treasure, Angkor Wat, helped create the ancient nation of Kampuchea (Cambodia).
The Apsara Dance, inspired by the Angkor Wat sculptures, portrays the apsara maiden Mera, dressed in white for purity, dancing in her garden with her handmaidens. Golden flowers symbolize the happiness and the well being of the Cambodian people.
The tumultuous creation legend is reflected in the nation’s history. Following the 1979 collapse of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians fled their native land. About 150,000 refugees eventually resettled to the United States with about one-third making their home in Long Beach. The city has the largest concentration of Cambodians outside of Southeast Asia and is home to the country's only "Cambodia Town."
Khmer Arts Academy Artistic Director Sophiline Cheam Shapiro speaks to the legend and the history. As a choreographer, dancer, vocalist and educator, Cheam Shapiro has infused the venerable Cambodian classical form with her own new, original ideas and energy. Cheam Shapiro has received numerous honors, including Asia 21, Creative Capital, Durfee, Guggenheim and Irvine Dance Fellowships, as well as the 2006 Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture. She served as a member of the first generation to graduate from Phnom Penh's Royal University of Fine Arts after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime and was a member of the faculty there from 1988 to 1991. She studied all three major roles for women (neang, nearong and yeak), which is rare. With RUFA’s ensemble, she toured India, the Soviet Union, the United States and Vietnam. She immigrated to Southern California in 1991, where she studied dance ethnology at UCLA and now teaches and lectures internationally.
Sophiline is included in the online PBS feature, “Cambodian-Americans Speak” (http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/shapiro.html), a companion to the Frontline World program, Cambodia - Pol Pot’s Shadow (October 2002).
The Khmer Arts Academy Ensemble is made up of master artists who were trained in Cambodia, visiting artists from around the country and apprentice artists from the Academy's training programs in Long Beach. It performs works from the vast classical dance repertory as well as original works of choreography. The ensemble performs at major venues, universities, museums and community-based celebrations.