Reinventing Khmer classical dance

Cambodia is a country that has gone through dramatic political and social changes over the last few decades.

During the brutal Khmer rouge years (1975-1979), a disturbing 1/3 of the country’s population was wiped out. Targeted were the country’s educated, artistic and elite classes — 90% of the country’s Khmer classical dancers were murdered.

From the shadows of that dark era rose a shaky revitalization of the country — and eventually also of Khmer classical dance.

Prumsodun Ok and Natyarasa

If you’re not familiar with Prumsodun Ok, now’s the time. A Cambodian-American native of Long Beach, California, Ok is a practitioner of Khmer classical dance and a self-identified LGBTQ person. With recent Cambodian history’s role in devastating the classical arts, Ok views reviving and preserving 1,000 year-old Khmer classical dance traditions as “both a protest against a history of violence and a gesture of resilience.”

In 2015, to make a bigger impact with his art form, he packed his bags and moved to Phnom Penh.

Ok founded Prumsodun Ok and Natyarasa with the mission of preserving the artform and also creating new works that express the LGBTQ experience through classical dance. In his interview with Atlas Obscura, he made an interesting point — that for many young gay men in Cambodia who loved the classical dance, there was no place to seek professional or serious training. Ok now bridges that gap.

Check out his dance school and watch his moving TED talk.

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