Organization

Khmer Arts Academy


Khmer Arts Academy was a nonprofit school of Cambodian classical dance and music in Long Beach, California, active from 2002 until it closed in 2022.[1][2] The choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro co-founded it to keep Cambodian arts and culture alive, and for 20 years it gave young members of the Greater Long Beach Cambodian community year-round training in classical dance.[3][4] Its studio was the center for dance in Long Beach's Cambodia Town Cultural District.[5]

History

Sophiline Cheam Shapiro arrived in the United States in 1991 and began teaching classical dance workshops across Southern California.[1] She and her husband, John Shapiro, established the academy in Long Beach in 2002. An article in a California State University student journal gives the founding year as 1999.[1][6] The California Arts Council was among its first funders. A Multi-Cultural Entry Grant in 2002 paid for early programs, served as a match for other support and later helped fund residencies.[5][7] In 2006 the Shapiros opened a second center in Cambodia.[1] The academy was home to the Khmer Arts Ensemble, a 29-member professional touring troupe of dancers and musicians, now the Sophiline Arts Ensemble.[3][8]

The school grew steadily through its first decade. By 2012 it had about 40 students at its studio, some of whom drove in from Greater Long Beach and San Diego. A good number of dancers had trained for eight years or more, and adult students were as many as the high school students.[9] That year Prumsodun Ok, who had begun training with Sophiline Cheam Shapiro at the age of 16, became associate artistic director. Khmer Arts marked its tenth anniversary with a celebration at the Long Beach Museum of Art on October 13, 2012.[9] Later, when Ok left for Cambodia, Mea Lath and his younger sister took on the teaching of all the academy's dancers and the work of keeping it open.[2]

In 2018 Walt Disney Animation Studios invited Reaksmey "Mea" Lath, then the academy's managing director, to bring members of the academy to its headquarters in Burbank. Lath, Dawnsavann Phom and Khannia Ok shared Cambodian history, myths and dance movements with the studio for the project that became Raya and the Last Dragon. They were paid as consultants, and all of the money went to the academy.[10] That same year Charya Burt, a frequent guest artist, worked with the academy during her 2017 to 2018 residency to present the premiere of her full-length work Silenced.[11]

Enrollment fell to 15 students in 2019. The teachers changed their methods and the studio environment because, in Lath's words, "our students are different," and she saw the new approach as "less about preserving and more about innovating."[10] After the release of Raya and the Last Dragon, families began asking to enroll their children, and Lath credited the film in part for the rise.[10]

The academy closed in 2022. The same year Lath founded Modern Apsara Company in Long Beach.[2][12]

Teaching

The academy's free workshops served about 50 apprentice dancers. They learned the basic movements and traditional repertory of classical dance, along with the original dances of the artistic director, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro.[3] Students also studied music, including pinpeat, the traditional ensemble that played for the royal palace dancers.[6][13] Classes met three days a week.[11]

In 2019 Mea Lath and student teachers gave instruction in a mix of Khmer and English, correcting each dancer's posture and alignment by hand. Older students led stretching and helped correct younger ones. At the breaks, students, teachers and parents shared food at the studio table.[13] Malene Sam, daughter of Sam-Ang Sam, was a volunteer instructor.[13]

In Southern California, dance at the academy connected young people with Khmer identity and traditions.[11] The monthly Salon Series brought free dance, music, film and lecture demonstrations to the studio and later toured across California. The academy hosted artists-in-residence from Cambodia, and a Visiting Artist Series gave students workshops in forms from opera and samba music to West African dance, yoga and mime.[9] Students performed at community celebrations, festivals, schools and theaters.[14]

Grants from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts supported much of this work:[3]

  • Living Cultures grants in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2014, supporting year-round training and performance for students aged 5 to 18
  • A 2008 artist residency with the dancer, choreographer and teacher Charya Burt, giving apprentices year-round contact with accomplished artists; see Charya Burt Cambodian Dance
  • A 2004 project in which Sophiline Cheam Shapiro trained the master pinpeat musician Ho Chimm Chan, over 15 sessions, to give lecture-demonstrations for school children
  • Student performances at TEDxSoCal, led by Khannia Ok, apprentice to the master artist Prumsodun Ok

The Arts Council for Long Beach also gave the academy an operating grant.[15]

Khmer Arts Ensemble and repertory

The Khmer Arts Ensemble performed Sophiline Cheam Shapiro's choreography alongside rare works from the Cambodian classical canon, and it presented dances on major stages across three continents.[16] Shapiro's works include Samritechak, The Glass Box, Seasons of Migration and Pamina Devi. Through this repertory and its teaching, the academy carried Cambodian classical dance forward in the postwar diaspora.[4] Shapiro's honors include Guggenheim and Irvine Dance Fellowships and the Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture.[4]

Dancers trained at the academy went on to careers in Cambodian classical dance.[17] The former student Prumsodun Ok later founded a company in Cambodia that performed both Khmer classical dances and new works, which VOA called the country's first gay dance company.[18]

Studio

The academy's studio stood at 1364 Obispo Avenue in the Zaferia neighborhood of Long Beach.[6][10] Inside were an altar with burning incense, a large painting of the Buddha, a stage with musical instruments, and an altar holding crowns, masks, bamboo, flower garlands, baisay offerings and framed photographs. One wall of the main studio was lined with mirrors.[6][13] In November 2019 the altar held offerings for the passing of Her Royal Highness Samdech Reach Botrei Preah Ream Norodom Buppha Devi.[13]

People

  • Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, co-founder and artistic director[3]
  • John Shapiro, co-founder[1]
  • Prumsodun Ok, student from age 16, associate artistic director from 2012, and later master artist to the apprentice Khannia Ok; see Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA[19][9][3]
  • Reaksmey "Mea" Lath, student from age 12, instructor, and later managing director and lead instructor[2][12][10]
  • Malene Sam, volunteer instructor (2019)[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 National Endowment for the Arts, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Brandeis University, Spotlight on Artists
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Khmer Arts Academy profile
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 National Endowment for the Arts, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro - National Endowment for the Arts
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 California Arts Council blog, "40 Stories" Spotlight: Khmer Arts Academy (March 2016)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 California State University student journal, The Role of Khmer Court Dance and Music (PDF)
  7. ↑ California Arts Council blog, March 2016
  8. ↑ University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022 Asia Pacific Dance Festival guide
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 The Hi-Lo, Healing and Inspiration: 10 Years of Khmer Arts (September 2012)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 The Hi-Lo, Local Khmer arts group helped in the production of Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon (March 2021)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 charyaburt.com, Community Engagement
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Modern Apsara Company, MAC Krus
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 University of California, master's thesis on music classes at Khmer Arts Academy (PDF, 2021)
  14. ↑ Angkor Database, Khmer Arts Academy
  15. ↑ Arts Council for Long Beach, organization grants
  16. ↑ Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Khmer Arts Academy - Alliance for California Traditional Arts (2019-07-26)
  17. ↑ Modern Apsara Company, MAC Krus - Modern Apsara Company (2023-01-01)
  18. ↑ Voice of America (VOA News), Ambitious Cambodian Dance Troupe Honors Artistic Traditions in New Ways (2017-07-02)
  19. ↑ VOA, Cambodian dance troupe honors artistic traditions in new ways (2017)

Sources

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This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 23:14.