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The work, Pamina Devi was commissioned by Peter Sellars for the Mozart 250 celebration in Vienna, Austria in 2006 and has been touring ever since. I am not really qualified to offer a review, just a brief description of my experience. I am grateful for having seen this, and to the Joyce theater for having the company last year and this.

While I am familiar with some Asian dance, Cambodian classical dance is new to me. A friend, originally from Cambodia told me that the dancers' steps were designed to look like they are walking on clouds. That seemed more true last year ("Seasons of Change,") than this year, but the movements are very slow, soft and beautiful though angular, controlled, and elegant. There is distortion in the use of the hands, which they bend backwards forming almost a cycle shape. There does not seem to be the "grammar" and "syntax" used in the Indian dance vocabulary, but the hands do talk.

The story, told in song and dance, aided and abetted by surtitles (only criticism, they put the screen behind the scrim!) is not the one of "Magic Flute" but one that interprets those characters in a Cambodian setting. The Costumes are blindingly beautiful (gold and sparkling), the music strange, but on the whole, I felt a sereneness after the performance that is not something that comes with a ballet performance. I recommend seeing this company, the Kmer Arts Ensemble -- dancers, musicians and singers of the Kmer Arts Academy a group of mostly exiles living in Southern California -- for a nearly otherworldly experience.

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Thanks for this. I've seen only one performance of Cambodian dance, several years ago, but I also remember the serenity and feeling of peace. Also, from what I remember about the Khmer Rouge's destruction of Cambodia's classical dance community, it's wonderful to learn that some of it, at least, is still alive.

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Thanks for this. I've seen only one performance of Cambodian dance, several years ago, but I also remember the serenity and feeling of peace. Also, from what I remember about the Khmer Rouge's destruction of Cambodia's classical dance community, it's wonderful to learn that some of it, at least, is still alive.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...753C1A966958260

Alexandra, do you think it was this company you saw? I saw them in this engagement at the Joyce Theater in 1990, and it was glorious. ViolinConcerto is right about the royal costumes of gold. It was like being at court, and was far superior to the Royal Court of Bhutan I'd seen at Carnegie Hall a few months earlier. An Indian dancer I know talked about yet another Cambodian troupe, but I thought this one was once again based in Phnom Penh and they looked extremely well-funded, so I don't know if they are the same as the ones now at the Joyce. At the time, some of the dancers defected. They were an unusual success for this sort of dance, as I recall, and the 2-week engagement was sold out.

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Thanks so much for the link, papeetepatrick. The article about the company at the Joyce in 1990 brings up a vague memory.... maybe I saw that company.....

At any rate, I wish that the Joyce had put the biographical material by Sophiline Cheam Shapiro online, it explains much of the background of the company, then I could share it here. Here is a link to what they do have: http://www.joyce.org/calendar_detail.php?e...0&theater=1.

Before the performance, I was talking to a man in the lower lobby, and he mentioned that he lived in Cambodia (an American) and had something to do with a school of dance. I remembered an article in the Times several years ago, and asked if he was the man in the article, who had rescued and revitalized a classical dance company there, even though he had no background in dance, and he said yes. My goodness, what an incredible story that was. His story, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro's and so many others describe how dancers have risen, phoenix-like from the ashes of the Kmer Rouge, and put their broken art form back together again. If I can dig up more, I'll post it.

I'm really so happy that others on BT are familiar with this treasure.

Edited to add link to NY Times

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