Organization

Modern Apsara Company


Modern Apsara Company (MAC) is a Cambodian classical dance company in Long Beach, California, founded in 2022 by the dancer Reaksmey "Mea" Lath.[1][2] It offers performances, training and interactive workshops, and it sets out to connect the modern world with the sacred art of Cambodian classical dance.[1][2] Lath is its founder, artistic director and lead instructor.[3]

The company calls itself a woman-owned small business run by a person of color. It is not a nonprofit but, in its own words, a new venture doing business for a social cause. Contributions help it keep tuition affordable for students connecting with their cultural heritage through the performing arts.[1]

History

Lath began learning dance at the age of 12 under Sophiline Cheam Shapiro at Khmer Arts Academy in Long Beach, which Shapiro had co-founded in 2002. She became an instructor there, teaching alongside Prumsodun Ok. Later, as the academy's managing director and lead instructor, she developed a modern approach to teaching its dance curriculum.[3][2] The company's website calls her a second-generation Cambodian American, and the Long Beach Symphony calls her a first-generation Cambodian American refugee.[1][4]

Khmer Arts Academy closed in 2022, and Lath founded Modern Apsara Company in Long Beach the same year.[3][5] She chose the name because people had called her a modern-day apsara. Apsaras are celestial beings, carved in great numbers on the walls of Angkor Wat and other temples. The name does not mean modern dance. To Lath, a modern apsara is someone who keeps the essence of the art form alive in a new place and new circumstances.[6][3] The company began with almost 50 dancers. It later took fewer, to protect the quality of teaching, since Lath sees the form as hands-on, with each dancer molded closely by the teacher.[3][5]

Lineage and training

Lath counts herself a disciple of the masters Sophiline Cheam Shapiro and Charya Burt, with whom she has trained in the United States and Cambodia for more than 20 years. In 2011 she was Burt's apprentice in the apprenticeship program of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. In Cambodia she has trained and taken workshops with the Royal Ballet of Cambodia and the Sophiline Arts Ensemble; see Charya Burt Cambodian Dance.[2][7]

The company follows the tradition's model of teaching from master to disciple. Its principal dancers, the MAC Krus, are also its teaching artists. They are Cambodian American women trained by several dance masters, with 10 to 30 years of performing experience. Students address women teachers as Neak Kru and men as Lok Kru.[2] The company honors the legacies of past and present Cambodian dance masters by presenting their work in prominent venues, and it supports the professional growth of its artists.[4][8]

Performances and workshops

The company gives classes, community shows, and performances and workshops at community festivals.[9] Performances and workshops are booked through a consultation meeting.[1]

  • A PBS SoCal feature (June 2023) on the company's work to keep the art form alive and within reach of younger generations[10]
  • A pre-show panel for East West Players' Los Angeles premiere of Cambodian Rock Band in March 2025, with Lath as a speaker[11]
  • A Cambodian classical dance workshop with the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, held alongside the exhibition Angkorian Homecoming (March 20 to May 2, 2025)[8]
  • The Long Beach Symphony's 90th-anniversary season finale, Love Stories, at the Terrace Theater on June 7, 2025. After a pre-concert talk in which Lath taught some of the hand gestures of Cambodian dance, MAC dancers performed Sovann Macha and Hanuman, an excerpt from the Reamker, with the Master Ho Pin Peat Ensemble and orchestral support arranged by Hans-Peter Preu.[12][4]

Lath has performed at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art, and she was a cultural consultant for Walt Disney Animation Studios' Raya and the Last Dragon.[2][11]

Company (2023)

Company members and advisors, as listed on the company's website in 2023.[2]

  • Reaksmey "Mea" Lath, founder and artistic director
  • Malene Sam, advisor to the Krus, who trained with teachers including Chan Moly Sam, Chea Samy, Soth Somaly, Proeung Chhieng, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro and Charya Burt
  • Courtney, a Kru who has danced for almost two decades
  • Alex, the company's resident performer in the Seattle, Washington, area, who began at Khmer Arts Academy
  • Victoria, one of Lath's first students, who graduated early from California State University, Fullerton, in December 2023
  • Chakra, an artist and educator with more than ten years of training under Prumsodun Ok, Charya Burt, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro and Mea Lath

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Modern Apsara Company, official site
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Modern Apsara Company, MAC Krus
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Brandeis University, Spotlight on Artists
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Long Beach Symphony, Modern Apsara
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Brandeis University, Spotlight on Artists (2024)
  6. ↑ Brandeis University, Peacebuilding and the Arts, Artist Spotlight: Mea Lath (2023)
  7. ↑ Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Charya Cheam Burt profile
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, Cambodian Classical Dance Workshop (2025)
  9. ↑ Eric Kim, Khmer LA (August 2025)
  10. ↑ PBS SoCal, How Modern Apsara Company Keeps a Centuries-Old Cambodian Art Form Alive
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 East West Players, Cambodian Rock Band pre-show panel (2025)
  12. ↑ LA Opus, Long Beach Symphony Love Stories finale (June 2025)
Retrieved from "https://dev.khmerconnection.com/w/index.php?title=Modern_Apsara_Company&oldid=7772"
This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 23:14.