University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Dance in the Diaspora

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Dance in the Diaspora

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Content 1 Dance in the Diaspora A documentary by Shweta Saraswat University of Southern California May 2013 2 Table of Contents Script ͙͙͙ ͙͙ ͙ ͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙ ͙͙ ͙͙͘ . pg. 3 Bibliography ͙͙ ͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙ ͙͙ ͙͙ ͙ pg. 12 3 Dance in the Diaspora Producer: Shweta Saraswat LINK TO FINAL DOCUMENTARY VIDEO: http://impact.uscannenberg.org/segments/2013/03/khmer-‐ dance NAT S Dancers stand to the side, about to enter the stage VO PRUM Warm yourself up, don ͛ƚ let yourself get stiff. And meditate, ok? Really get into your character. NATS Music comes up as show begins. VO Prum Classical Cambodian music plays. This performance of this work, this ritual, in this city is a testament to the resilience of beauty in the shadow of genocide, loss and trauma. To see this art form alive today, ther Ğ͛Ɛ a certain magic in it. Ther Ğ͛Ɛ a certain power in it. TRANSITION Fade to black Title Card: Dance in the Diaspora NATS Prum teaches young girls, fixes their postures Prum singing in Khmer VO Prum CG: Prumsodun Ok Associate Artistic Director, Khmer Arts Academy Khmer classical dance is an art form that is over a thousand years old. If you look a its formal qualities, ŝ ƚ͛Ɛ very serpentine, it ͛ s very meditative, and it ͛ s very fluid. SOT Prum VO Prum Young girls and snake floor pattern The snake was an important figure in this belief system because in its fluidity of movement, in its curvilinear patterns, it mimicked water. And to mimic the snake is to mimic water, is to invoke the water as well. NAT SOT Prum Prum holding small girl, teaching hand gestures. Ok, how about your hand gestures? Show le ŬƌƵ͙ũ eeb ͙ wait wait you have to spread this all the way. VO Prum Prum work with Jack on postures Dancers performed in the temples. They were dedicated as offerings to the temples. And they ͛ re role in society was they were bridges between heaven and earth for the deliverance of wellbeing and health and harmony and order. And men and women were both dedicated to temples at this time. NAT VO Prum teaches advanced group (Ream Eyso ripping H Ğ͛Ɛ going to do a two-‐step every time. So h Ğ͛Ɛ going to go one ͙ and two. And th ĞŶŚĞ ͛Ɛ 4 through the clouds scene). going to put his arms on you and Ś Ğ͛Ɛ going to rip through you guys. Ok? VO Prum dancing through lines of students (WS from back and MS from side) So the Khmer Arts Academy is amateur community ensemble we have here in Long Beach. Students are learning a lot here that they wouldn ͛ƚ get otherwise. They ͛ƌ Ğ getting Cambodian mythology, Cambodian history, Cambodian legends. They ͛ re learning to speak in Khmer, they ͛ƌ Ğ learning to sign in Khmer. /͛ŵ using art and beauty to protest the violence of genocide. To say no to it. TRANSITION Fade to black Mournful Khmer music NATs Historical photos of the Khmer Rouge Music SOT Robinson CG: Geoffrey Robinson Professor of History, UCLA The Khmer Rouge was a revolutionary movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 in an unusually brutal way. In those four years in the course of the Khmer Rouge, about 2 million people were killed out of population of about 8 million. VO Prum Students dancing in lines, clapping and vocalizing. Prum reaction shots They really decided that the best way for Cambodia to move forward was to have an egalitarian, agrarian peasant society. So they marched everyone out of the cities and forced everyone into labor camps. SOT Phirum CG: Phirum Sea Survivor, Khmer Rouge Genocide In Khmer Rouge, I ͛ ve been through. I was young, I think 5 or 6 years old. VO Phirum CU and WS of Katherine Sea dancing In one of the provinces they told my mom ͚ oh you have to stay for one year to do the farming ͛͘ nd everybody ran. A lot of shooting involved. SOT Phirum I was running with my mom. I was small, and I could hear the bullet go through my ear. Like I could hear it, the sound. And I see left and right were fell down, a lot of people. VO Phirum Photos of Khmer Rouge Left and right people fell down because they were shot. But all my family all survived. They ͛ re so lucky. SOT Katherine CG: Katherine Sea Student, Khmer Arts Academy CU Katherin Ğ͛Ɛ feet dancing WS Katherine dancing in group A couple of years ago I asked my mom how she fled the Khmer Rouge and she gave me like a two hour story of how she did it. After her telling me that story, when I came back to dance the next week I felt different. I felt like dance has connected me to my culture in a 5 totally different way than how I used to look at dance. SOT Prum During this time, you have 80-‐90 percent of Cambodian artists perishing, whether ŝ ƚ͛ Ɛ through death, execution, starvation or illness. VO Robinson MS Prum fixes fan CUs Faces and fans dancing Because the arts, dance and music and so on had been so closely related to court culture and temple life, this revolutionary movement tried to wipe it out as a way of establishing this new revolutionary society. SOT Prum People were gutted. They were gutted because they were dancers. They were executed because they were dancers. They were targeted because they were dancers. VO Prum Fan dance continues Pan across Snake formation with Prum in lead MS Snake formation moves across floor, exits frame. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, many Cambodians fled to neighboring refugee camps in Thailand. While in Thailand, they were suffering through food shortage, unchecked violence. SOT Prum But you know, through all of that, immediately people were dancing in the refugee camps. Dancers from the palace who ended up there were teaching in these refugee camps. SOT Robinson In the refugee community, people had lost family members and friends. People had witnessed awful things. For many people, dance helped to remedy and alleviate that burden. VO Robinson MS/CU Katherine dancing with fans Dance was a way to find some peace, to find some solace, and a way to revitalize some of that lost Cambodian identity. SOT Phirum If they don ͛ƚ have the Khmer Art Academy, then they wouldn͛ƚ know how to dance and stuff and keep up with all the Cambodian community. SOT Katherine Sea Just being here it was like my second home. I can be myself her. VO Prum CU Jack hand gestures with child in lap CU Nita dances with child on back WS Jack and Nita with children This is the place where you get the mentorship, the friendship, the respect. Because if you know it here, and it feels good, then you ͛ů ů take it with you wherever you go. TRANSITION CARD ͞ The students are preparing for the Acad Ğ ŵǇ͛Ɛ 10 th anniversary gala performan ĐĞ͘ ͟ NAT SOT Prum I was getting scared that we w ĞƌĞŶ͛ ƚ 6 WS Talking to students circled on the floor. MS Students on floor listening. rehearsing enough, but I think if we just keep this schedule until October 13, i ƚ͛Ɛ going to look really good. TRANSITION CARD Classical Cambodian music plays ͞ Artists from the Khmer Arts Ensemble in Cambodia have flown in to rehearse with the students for the upcoming ƐŚŽǁ͘͟ NATS CU of Ream Eyso mask on dancer MS of Ream Eyso dancer practicing Music continues, accompanying solo dance. VO Prum Ream Eyso dances Today ͛Ɛƌ Ğ hearsal was different in the sense that we had artists from Cambodia here, finally. So this was the fullest that rehearsals every felt. NAT SOT Prum Moni Mekhala dances on platform So this is Moni Mekhala. She is the goddess of the ocean, and she is the protagonist of the drama of Ream Eyso and Moni Mekhala. And so this s one of the oldest dramas, most sacred dramas in Cambodian classical dance. /ƚ͛ƐĂ story of how lightning and thunder were born ͘/ƚ͛Ɛ also a very empowering image of a woman, since she brings down a demon that even the gods are afraid of. VO Prum Moni Mekhala and Ream Eyso fight for crystal ball, with senior teacher fixing. I wanted to illustrate the connection between Long Beach. And I wanted to create and opportunity for my students to engage with artists, to be inspired by them, to aspire to be as good as them. SOT Prum WS Show poster on wall CU Poster MS Front of snake formation with MM and Jack in front CU Jack in front of snake with fans. The Khmer Arts Academy has never performed a dance drama. And so for our ten year anniversary I thought ok, we would like to perform a dance drama. And Ream Eyso Moni Mekhala works because it ͛ƐĂ story about lin ĞĂŐĞ͘/ ƚ ͛Ɛ a story about the cycle of life. So teacher to student, but also lightning thunder land rain, lightning thunder land rain, lightning thunder land rain. NAT SOT Prum Students and Prum are passing out candles and incense Five sticks of incense and one candle, ok? VO Prum CU Pan up Jerry Handing out incense Today was really special in the sense that Thursday in Brahmanic tradition is teacher ͛Ɛ day. An Ě ŝ ƚ͛Ɛ a day in which students pay respects to their teachers by making offerings of candles and incense and fruit. 7 NAT SOTS Prum and students MS Nita struggles with phrase CU Emily holds incense What do we say? Say (Khmer phrase) Students struggle to say Khmer phrase NAT SOT MS Nita, Emily, Farah I don ͛ƚ really speak Khmer. Sh Ğ͛Ɛ Malaysian, so she really do Ğ ƐŶ͛ƚ Khmer. NATS Prum cuts and opens a coconut. Crowns and masks on altar. All the crowns on that platform is actually our altar. They ͛ƌĞ going to be worn on Saturday. So /͛Ě ů ŝ ke to kind of wake up the crowns in a sense. Consecrate the energies and the spirits into the crowns right now. NATS Prum and dancers approach altar with offerings of fruit and incense. Students join, and senior teachers takes offerings as Prum prays. Natural sound of murmurs and prayers VO Robinson MS Offering fruits, pan to crowns on altar. Pan Students bowing with incense to altar. I think the estimates of American psychiatrists and psychologists that something like 2 in 3 Cambodians if not more suffer deep depression or post-‐traumatic stress disorder as a part of this terrible, terrible experience they suffered. VO Prum Mea (student) approaches Prum, offers him incense as he prays over her. Cambodian-‐Americans when I group, 1990s, the height of violence in the Southern California region. You know, ther Ğ͛Ɛ so much gang violence, so much teen pregnancy, and that has really left a nasty mark on our community. And unfortunately I don ͛ƚ think that stuff has ended for many Cambodians and many people in inner-‐city Long Beach. SOT Prum Cambodian classical dance and the arts are what really refined my eye, so I ͛m really committed to giving my students that same thing, really using this art form as a tool to really refine their eyes. VO PRUM CU Mask of saint on altar WS Senior teacher with incense in front of altar And also to get them to understand their place in the world, and the role that they can play in it. TRANSTION Fade to black. Black CG: Cambodia Town, Long Beach, CA Rap music plays. MUSIC CU Radio CU Ja ĐŬ ͛Ɛ face MS Outside car facing front Rap music plays. 8 MS Outside side window MS Street sign passing, ͞ Cambodia To ǁŶ ͟ MS Passing Lily Bakery MS Jack and Khannia enter Lily Bakery CU Server fills box with noodles. NAT SOT Jack at bakery counter So w Ğ͛ƌĞ at Lily Bakery. I come here for easy Khmer food. We used to come here with my mom, ƐŚĞ ͛Ě Ă lways buy these snacks for us, so now that we have our own money we can come by ourselves. NAT SOT Jack and Khannia MS Looking at packaged food What would you call this? /ƚ͛Ɛů ŝ Ŭ e, a type of dough bu ƚ͙ We know what we like to eat but we don ͛ƚ what it is (laughs). VO Jack MS Server s waving as Jack exits store I was born back in Thailand in the Thai-‐Khmer border, after the whole Khmer Rouge thing happened and my family escaped Cambodia to go to the refugee camps, and th Ăƚ͛ Ɛ where I was born. SOT Jack But I grew up in Long Beach. We ͛ ve always lived around this area, the heart of Cambodia Town. I guess ƚŚĂƚ͛Ɛ where my parents felt most comfortable. SOT Prum Long Beach formed as the center of the diaspora because before the war happened, there were already Cambodian students who were going to school here, and they had already had this network so they were already providing support. So people heard about Long Beach, they heard about the community and they came here. VO Jack MS Driving, Cherry Street sign passes. And growing up I always felt like oh, I gotta get out of here, because back in the 90s it was very violent, for lack of a better word, ghetto. NAT SOT Jack J ĂĐŬ͛Ɛ face driving, passing by a banquet hall J ĂĐŬ͛Ɛ hands on wheel. So here is Ha-‐Hieung, where my siste ƌ͛Ɛ wedding is going to be next week, the reception, so I ͛ m excited about that. My mom worked there for like 16 years I think. Very long hours, and paid under the table of course. SOT Robinson MS Entering art store Pan from Ravana statue to J ĂĐŬ͛Ɛ face looking. As in a lot of immigrants who came to the United States, there is a pressure to assimilate. The urge to assimilate may be even stronger among younger people. They don ͛ƚ want to know about all of that stuff. SOT Jack I always knew I was Cambodian, growing up 9 Pan across different Buddhist and Hindu statues. as a kid. But it never really registered as being a part of what makes me who I am until I got older, especially in college when I got really active in the community. NAT SOT Jack MS Pointing at statues CU of statue MS Showing different tattoos on arms Another tattoo I want to get is Savan-‐Machan and Hanuman, the Mermaid and the Monkey, as a huge piece on my back. On this side, I got a Vishnu sitting on the naga, because the naga represents the Khmer people, and the Vishnu I thought was a cool god, Hindu god. But now I going for this whole thing Cambodian-‐themed tattoos all over my body. SOT Robinson MS Jack and Prum walking down street. The younger generation who may have grown up in Long Beach in many cases is not that interested in that Cambodian past, because for them their life is in America. VO Jack MS Cambodian signage on street Now I ͛m walking around, and th ĞƌĞ͛ Ɛ all this stuff I used to take for granted that I can appreciate more now. SOT Jack Because I think I appreciate myself more now. FADE TO BLACK COME UP ON NEW SCENE NATS Students putting on their make-‐up in studio, WS and CUs Natural sound of quiet studio, murmuring NAT SOT Prum Prum applies foundation on Jack You see that? So i ƚ͛Ɛ the way that you ͛ƌĞ applying it, not how much you put on. VO Prum Girls putting make up each other The point of the makeup is not to be beautiful on the outside but it ͛Ɛ to really elevate yourself, to really transform yourself into that character. You have to make a clear transition from human to god through the act of costuming. VO Prum Sequence of Prum sewing Reachny into her costume Our students are primarily Cambodian-‐ American who were born and raised here. Some of them are Christian, some of them are Buddhist Ͷ I have one Muslim student. VO Prum Jack practices in costume, hands and face. You have these younger kids who are giving themselves names like Stacy or Tommy. SOT Prum I think ŝ ƚ͛Ɛ this product of being this person who has grown not Cambodian, not American. VO Robinson Senior teacher folds costume There is a kind of a tragic tension in some Cambodian families between an older generation and younger. 10 SOT Robinson he wonderful thing about something like dance is that it can help to heal that rupture and it can help to create some kind of common bond, common understand that allows the generations once again to speak the same language. NAT SOUND TRANSITION Montage of students putting final touches on costumes Classical Cambodian music plays VO Robinson Pan Prum takes crowns to U-‐HAL in driveway, gets in driv Ğƌ͛Ɛ seat. WS U-‐Haul drives away off screen. If I look at the Khmer Arts Academy in Long Beach today, I see it as a very hopeful example of the way in which dance and other forms of culture can provide a community which has been through hard times and continues to go through hard times with some kind of solace, some kind of a sense of community, of identity and a sense of great possibility. TRANSITION Fade to Black NATSOT Prum Dancers practicing on stage, ocean in background. Dancers leave to go backstage. Ok, I need you all to go in the backroom right now, because I don ͛ƚ want you guys to be back here, to get deyhydrated, to get hot, your makeup ͛Ɛ going to run. Let ͛Ɛ take everything that we need to take down. SOT Phirum Pan from seated Katherine to Phirum standing. Now when they all grown up and they wear the big costumes and stuff, /͛ŵ really impressed. I didn ͛ƚ realize that they were going to be up to that level. But /͛ŵ really proud of them VO Katherine Sea Katherine has her crown tied. Pan up from hands tying to tip of the crown. CUs Dancers faces swaying in line in full costume. My role as an artist in Long Beach is to like, I just want to keep the Cambodian culture alive. There are a lot of people who don ͛ƚ know about their cultures and they don ͛ƚ know anything about their traditions, and having their peers and people in their own age group showing it to them and like, performing all these different cultures and explain to them what it does I think brings them to realization that ͚ Oh, I need to learn more about my culture and traditions. ͟ NAT SOT Prum Dancers leave back room, head to stage Hello everyone, my name is Prumsodun Ok. I am the associate artistic director at Khmer Arts. And I just want to say ƚŚĂƚŝ ƚ͛Ɛ such a 11 Prum introducing dancers to audience. pleasure and honor for you guys to join us here today on our ten year anniversary. VO Robinson MS Audience watching MS Dancers with fans, pan across to other line of dancers. WS Audience watching. MS Snake formation with fans moves across stage. Typically when people speak about Cambodia in this country, they speak about the genocide. This is, in a tragic way, a community, a country uniquely defined by its worst moment, its genocide. What the Khmer Arts Academy does is it shows a face of Cambodia to the rest of the country and to the community which is a beautiful side, a side of Cambod ŝ Ă͛Ɛ ƌ ichness and heritage and possibility. NAT SOUND MS Snake formation with fans Performance music plays. SOT Prum It used to be ͚K h, what is dance to me? /ƚ ͛Ɛ my identity, it ͛ s my culture. ͛ The change that /͛ŵ bringing here is that this dance is bigger than Cambodia. VO Prum MS Fan dance, getting in final pose WS Final pose, audience applause This dance allows you to tap into a universal human core. This dance is your tool to question and explore and shape the society that we live in. FADE TO BLACK Audience applauds. 12 Bibliography Cravath, Paul. ͞ The Ritual Origins of the Classical Dance Drama of Cambodia. ͟ Asian Theatre Journal. 3.2 (1986): 179-‐203. Shapiro-‐Phim, Toni. ͞ Dance, Music and the Nature of Terror in Democratic Kampuchea. ͟ Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide. Ed. Alexander Laban Hinton. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002. 179-‐185. Reed, Susan A. ͞ The Politics and Poetics of Dance. ͟ Annual Review of Anthropology. 27 (1998): 503-‐532. Hamera, Judith. ͞ The Answerability of Memory: ͚^ aving ͛ Khmer Classical Dance. ͟ The Drama Review. 46.4 (2002): 65-‐85. Shapiro-‐Phim, Toni. ͞ Cambod ŝ Ă͛Ɛ͚^ easons of Migration ͛͘͟ Dance Research Journal. 40.2 (2008): 56-‐73. Wong, Yutian. ͞ Dance, Human Rights and Social Justice: Dignity in Motion ͘͟ Dance Research Journal. 43.1 (2011): 99-‐101. Marshall, Grant N. ͞ Mental Health of Cambodian Refugees Two Decades After Resettlement in the United Stat ĞƐ͘ ͟ Journal of American Medicine. 294.5 (2005):571-‐579. Douglas, Thomas J. ͞ Changing Religious Practices Among Cambodian Immigrants in Long Beach and Seattle. ͟ Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious Life in America. Ed. Karen Isaksen Leonard. Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2005. 123-‐142. D ͛ǀĂŶ zo, Carolyn Erickson. ͞ Stress in Cambodian Refugee Famili Ğ Ɛ͘͟ Journal of Nursing Scholarship. 26.2 (1994): 101-‐106. Zhou, Min. ͞ The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and its Varian ƚ Ɛ͘͟ The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 530.1 (1993): 74-‐96. Hing, Bill Ong. To Be An American: Cultural Pluralism and the Rhetoric of Assimilation. New York: New York University Press, 1997. ͞ U.S. Census 2000, Cambodian Population, by Stat Ğ͘ ͟ Hmong Studies. Mark E. Pfeifer, n.d. Web. September 11, 2011. <http://www.hmongstudies.org/CambodianAmericanCensusData.html>

Abstract (if available)

Abstract The bloody history of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia stained the cultural identity of many Cambodians who fled their home country, but the Khmer Arts Academy in Long Beach is rekindling a passion for Cambodian culture and history through dance and storytelling. ❧ Prumsodun Ok, a 25-year-old Cambodian American, is leading the effort to resurrect the spirit of Cambodian performing art as well as foster an understanding of Cambodian history and modern issues revolving around sexuality, identity and cultural difference. Ok is the artistic director of the Khmer Arts Academy in Long Beach, a city with a large Cambodian population that is struggling with issues like gang violence, teen pregnancy and poor education. He teaches dozens of children and adults the art of classical Cambodian dance, and is preparing for a 10th anniversary gala performance in October at the Long Beach Museum of Art. Many of his students learn about Cambodian history, myth, language and customs in dance class rather than at home. The Academy has been integral in bringing awareness of Cambodian culture to the larger Long Beach community through dance, lectures and workshops.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Saraswat, Shweta (author)

Core Title Dance in the Diaspora

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Journalism (Broadcast Journalism)

Publication Date 05/10/2013

Defense Date 03/23/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Cambodia,classical dance,Dance,Genocide,Khmer,Khmer Rouge,Long Beach,OAI-PMH Harvest

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Birman, Daniel H. (committee chair), Muller, Judy (committee member), Norindr, Panivong (committee member)

Creator Email shwetasaraswat@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-253423

Unique identifier UC11293396

Identifier etd-SaraswatSh-1679.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-253423 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-SaraswatSh-1679.pdf

Dmrecord 253423

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Saraswat, Shweta

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA