Tradition

Cambodian classical dance

របាំព្រះរាជទ្រព្យ


Cambodian classical dance (របាំព្រះរាជទ្រព្យ, Robam Preah Reach Trop) is the court dance of Cambodia, known for its hand gestures and elaborate costumes.[1] It has been bound to the Khmer court for more than a thousand years, and its repertory carries the legends of the origins of the Khmer people.[1][2]

Names

The Khmer name Robam Preah Reach Trop means "dances of royal wealth." The form is also called Lakhon Preah Reach Trop (ល្ខោនព្រះរាជទ្រព្យ) and Lakhon Luong (ល្ខោនហ្លួង), "the king's theater." In the Lon Nol years it was called Lakhon Kbach Boran Khmer (ល្ខោនក្បាច់បូរាណខ្មែរ).[2] The National Museum of Cambodia also gives Robam Kbach Boran and Lakhaon Loung.[3]

In English it is known as Khmer classical dance, as Cambodian court dance, after the palace attendants who performed and kept it, and as the Royal Ballet of Cambodia, the name UNESCO uses. That last name can also mean the National Dance Company of Cambodia.[2] Classical dancers are often loosely called apsara dancers, although the apsara is only one character in the repertory, danced in Robam Tep Apsara.[2]

Practice

The repertory has four character types: Neang, the woman; Neayrong, the man; Yeak, the giant; and Sva, the monkey. Each has its own colors, costume, makeup and masks.[1] The gestures and poses take years of intensive training to master, and they carry emotions from fear and rage to love and joy. A female chorus comments on the story and draws out the feelings the dancers mime.[1] Dancers were regarded as the kings' messengers to the gods and the ancestors.[1]

Teachers speak of a vocabulary of about 4,500 basic movements.[4] Dancers are sewn into their largely handmade costumes for each performance, which can last two to three hours.[5] The music comes from a pinpeat ensemble of xylophones, gongs, reeds, cymbals and barrel drums.[5][2]

The dance passes from master to disciple. Students address their teachers as Lok Kru (men) or Neak Kru (women), from the Sanskrit guru, "teacher."[6]

History

The National Museum of Cambodia traces the tradition to the Funan period, between the first and sixth centuries, when sacred dancers were regarded as a link between the earth and the gods.[3] One of the earliest records of dance in Cambodia dates from the seventh century, when performances served as a funeral rite for kings, and stone inscriptions name dancers assigned to temples.[2]

The Royal Ballet first traveled abroad with the court of King Sisowath in 1906, performing for a French audience.[3][2] After independence in 1953, Queen Sisowath Kossamak created new ballets and a new model of performance for national and international audiences, and the ballet became a symbol of Khmer culture and of the Cambodian nation. In 1959 she brought exhibition performances of Khmer national culture to the United States.[3][2]

Under the Khmer Rouge, from 1975 to 1979, almost all master dancers and musicians were killed. Dancers' own accounts put the loss at about nine in ten Khmer dancers, who died of disease, overwork, starvation and execution.[1][4][7][8] Troupes gathered again as soon as the regime fell, and performances of the old repertory resumed.[1] Surviving masters, among them Chea Samy, Soth Sam On and Chheng Phon, led the revival.[7][4] As minister of culture, Chheng Phon helped reopen the school that is now the Royal University of Fine Arts, still the country's most important school of classical dance, where many dances and dance dramas were recreated.[5][8][2] Training also began again in the refugee camps of eastern Thailand.[2]

UNESCO first proclaimed the Royal Ballet of Cambodia in 2003 and inscribed it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008 (3.COM, file 00060).[1] Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts lists it first among the country's UNESCO-registered intangible heritage, with a registration date of November 7, 2003.[9] At inscription UNESCO recorded the pressures the tradition still faces: too little funding, too few suitable stages, competition from modern media and the risk of becoming a tourist attraction alone.[1]

Repertoire

The Cambridge Guide to Asian Theatre (1997) counted about 40 dances and 60 dance dramas in the repertory. Since 1979, part of the old repertory has been recreated and new dances have been made.[2]

Dances taught by diaspora teachers include:[10]

  • Robam Apsara, in which the apsara Mera walks in a garden with her maids (see Robam Tep Apsara)
  • Robam Chun Por, a blessing dance in which flower petals are tossed to the audience
  • Robam Tep Monorom (Heavenly Bliss), in which male and female devadas move in and out of formation
  • Robam Buong Suong, a ritual prayer for peace, rain and fertility
  • Robam Monosenchetna, a love story that shows the gestural vocabulary
  • Robam Chhouy Chhay, a solo in praise of a young princess
  • The Reamker episode of Hanuman and Sovann Maccha, in which the white monkey courts a mermaid

Community

Classical music and dance ensembles founded in America carry the tradition in Cambodian American communities, often led by survivors and their students.[4]

In Cambodia

In the United States

  • Cambodian American Heritage, founded in 1980, whose dance troupe and music ensemble perform in the Washington, DC, area; its dance director Sam-Oeun Tes received a National Endowment for the Arts heritage fellowship in 1998, and master musician Chum Ngek leads its ensemble[14][15]
  • The Khmer Classical Dance Troupe, formed by surviving dancers, singers and musicians in the Thai border refugee camps and re-formed near Silver Spring, Maryland, in the early 1980s under Peou Khatna[16]
  • The Cambodian Buddhist Society Culture Committee at the Cambodian Buddhist Society Silver Spring temple in Maryland, whose Sunday classes in classical and folk dance and music began in 1990 under Peou Khatna[17]
  • Angkor Dance Troupe, founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1986 by Tim Chan Thou and fellow refugees, which has trained more than 7,000 students[18]
  • Charya Burt Cambodian Dance, a company in the San Francisco North Bay[19]
  • Khmer Arts Academy, founded in Long Beach, California, in 2002 by Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, which closed in 2022[20][6]
  • Modern Apsara Company, founded in Long Beach in 2022 by Mea Lath[21]
  • Cambodian Celestial Dance, a classical dance group in Northern Virginia founded in 2021 by master teacher Devi Yim and her students[22][23]

Masters and teachers

Queen Sisowath Kossamak, Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, Em Theay, Voan Savay and Chheng Phon each have their own pages. Other masters and teachers include:

  • Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, one of the first classically trained dancers to graduate from the School of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh after 1979, and a National Heritage Fellow (2009)[24]
  • Charya Burt, who trained at the University of Fine Arts from 1982 and studied under Soth Sam On[4][25]
  • Devi Yim, a graduate of the University of Fine Arts in the late 1980s and a master teacher in the United States for about thirty years[22][26]
  • Peou Khatna, a court dancer who began training at age seven, danced lead roles and later directed the Khmer Classical Dance Troupe[16]
  • Hun Pen, a dancer of the neang role, choreographer and researcher of the post-1979 revival, and Deputy Director of the Department of Performing Arts[27][28]
  • Sam-Oeun Tes, who studied with the Royal Ballet from 1966[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Royal ballet of Cambodia
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Wikipedia, Royal Ballet of Cambodia
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 National Museum of Cambodia, Royal Ballet history
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Charya Cheam Burt profile
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 PBS NewsHour and KQED, the 1,000-year-old dance tradition (2015)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Modern Apsara Company, MAC Krus
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA, official site
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Charya Burt Cambodian Dance, Biography
  9. ↑ Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Intangible Cultural Heritage
  10. ↑ Charya Burt Cambodian Dance, Classical Repertory
  11. ↑ Cambodianess, Royal dance returns to France (2025)
  12. ↑ People's Daily and Xinhua, Cambodia's Royal Ballet to perform at folk dance festival in Xinjiang (2025)
  13. ↑ ASEF culture360, Sophiline Arts Ensemble
  14. ↑ Cambodian-American Heritage, Inc., home page
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Cambodian-American Heritage, Inc., master dancers and musicians
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 National Endowment for the Arts, Peou Khatna
  17. ↑ Cambodian Buddhist Society Culture Committee, Cultural Programs
  18. ↑ Angkor Dance Troupe, Our Story
  19. ↑ Charya Burt Cambodian Dance, official site
  20. ↑ Brandeis University, Spotlight on Artists
  21. ↑ Modern Apsara Company, official site
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Cambodian Celestial Dance, About
  23. ↑ Cambodian Celestial Dance, official site
  24. ↑ Wikipedia, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro
  25. ↑ The Star and Phnom Penh Post, Rebirth of Apsara returns home (2025)
  26. ↑ Cambodian-American Heritage, Inc., master dancers
  27. ↑ Hun Pen, official site
  28. ↑ Center for Khmer Studies, Archive and documentation of Cambodian dance panel
Retrieved from "https://dev.khmerconnection.com/w/index.php?title=Cambodian_classical_dance&oldid=8835"
This page was last edited on 3 October 2026, at 01:02.