Organization

Cambodian Cultural Dance Troupe of San Jose


The Cambodian Cultural Dance Troupe of San Jose (CCDTSJ) is a school and performing group for Cambodian classical and folk dance in San Jose, California.[1] It has taught students from across the Bay Area for more than 30 years under the Cambodian American Resource Agency (CARA).[1][2]

History

The troupe's origins date to the 1990s. By 2024 it had been teaching for more than 30 years, and an SF Station directory listing gives its founding year as 1998.[1][3] CARA, founded in 1998, served young Cambodians in low-income neighborhoods of east San Jose, where their parents had resettled after fleeing the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s.[2] Many of the program's first graduates later brought their own children to Cambodian heritage and family history through dance.[2]

The artistic director, Savary Dean, studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Cambodia. She taught young people in San Jose for 25 years without pay, as a tribute to her fellow artists who perished.[4]

Grants from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) have supported much of the troupe's work. In 2012 advanced students traveled to Long Beach to study, dance and live with musicians of the Ho Chan Ensemble, and that fall the ensemble came to San Jose for a concert with local dancers. In 2013 an ACTA grant paid for free weekly lessons; students performed at the community's New Year festival and learned the folk dance Fish Tales, and a core group of male dancers kept building their monkey-dance repertoire.[4] In 2014 five high school seniors who had trained for years in the free lessons produced Hidden Treasures, a capstone performance at a local high school, and Ryan Boun led Chha Banchoss, a foundation piece for all Cambodian traditional dance.[4]

In 2016 the troupe staged The Judge Rabbit, a Cambodian folk tale seen on stage for the first time in the United States. Savary Dean led the production, and Charya Burt, as guest master artist, developed the choreography, music and song.[4] In 2020 the troupe brought back Sovan Macha, a dance in which monkeys build a wall and mermaids tear it down, until Hanuman and Sovan Macha, the mermaid queen, fall in love and the two sides become friends. Artists from other communities were invited to join a contemporary version.[4] The troupe presented at Mixed Melodies, an intercultural music event, in 2021.[1]

In 2022 the troupe performed Robam Tangyu, the Umbrella Dance, at the annual Cambodian Community Picnic. An ACTA Living Cultures Grant that year funded a family Bay Area Cambodian Cultural Festival, planned for early May 2023 with Cambodian communities from the Bay Area and the Central Valley, pairing the troupe with the Ho Chan Ensemble, Cambodian food and activities for the audience.[1][4] The troupe joined CARA's Khmer New Year 2024 arts showcase with dancers from across the Bay Area.[4] In 2024 and 2025, for the fiftieth anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh, it honored the artists targeted in the Khmer Rouge genocide with workshops, classes and performances at the Olinder Community Theater, run by Chopsticks Alley, and at the School of Arts and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza.[2]

Repertoire and teaching

The troupe teaches both classical and folk dance, and it has also produced traditional folk theater.[1] Young students learn exercises for flexibility and grace, the basic movements of the masked ogre dance and the monkey character from the Khmer Ramayana, the region's great epic. The monkey role is a favorite among the boys.[4] Students perform to live music from Ho Chan's pin peat orchestra, which ACTA calls the only one in California.[4] For about 30 years the troupe has danced each year at Cambodian New Year celebrations around San Jose.[1] In September 2014 it performed classical and folk dance at the Santa Cruz Ethnic Dance Festival at the Tannery Arts Center.[5]

Community

The troupe gives young Cambodian Americans a place outside the family to explore their identity and meet peers.[1] Students have come from all over the Bay Area, and it has taught successive generations.[1][4] Ryan Boun, who mentors younger students each week, ties the teaching of traditional dance to cultural identity, community and resilience in the diaspora.[4][6] The weekly class meets on Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m., usually at the Olinder Community Center in San Jose.[7]

Teachers

  • Savary Dean, artistic director[8][7]
  • Ryan Boun, lead teacher and a former apprentice of Charya Burt[7]
  • Charya Burt, dance consultant and former artist in residence. She has mentored the dancers and sung with the live music, and helped with costumes and makeup for concerts.[7][4]
  • Raline Von-Buelow, assistant to the artistic director[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Cambodian Cultural Dance Troupe of San Jose (July 2, 2024)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 San José Spotlight, Urbanowski: Santa Clara County is steeped in rich, diverse cultures (June 4, 2025)
  3. ↑ SF Station, Arts in San Jose directory
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Cambodian American Resource Agency (October 20, 2023)
  5. ↑ Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center, Santa Cruz Ethnic Dance Festival program (2014) (PDF)
  6. ↑ SJSU ScholarWorks, Mosaic Atlas: Interview with Ryan Boun (March 4, 2024)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Charya Burt Cambodian Dance, Community Engagement
  8. ↑ San Jose State University, Community resources: entertainment and art
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This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 23:16.