Hilton Chen
Apsara Dancers
For centuries, the Apsara dance was passed down from royal family to royal family until the 1950s when Queen Preah Maha Kshatriyani Kossamak chose her granddaughter Princess Norodom Buppha Devi at age 5 to train in the ballet. By age 18, she was awarded the title of Prima Ballerina and toured internationally with the newly created Cambodian Royal Ballet to share Khmer heritage and culture with the world. This was the first time the Apsara was performed outside of the royal court. During the dark days of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 – 1979, thousands of artists, scholars, and intellectuals were tortured and murdered. It’s estimated that over 90% of the dancers and musicians in the Royal Palace and Phnom Penh were imprisoned, tortured, and/or killed. With peace restored in 1991, surviving artists, including Her Royal Highness Princess Buppha Devi herself, began the difficult task of searching for new dancers in the hopes of revitalizing this important piece of cultural heritage.
The key feature of the Apsara dance are the intricate hand movements, of which there are an unbelievable 1,500 of them to learn. The different poses are known as kbach and relate to elements of nature such as flowers, leaves, and fruit. In addition to these kbach, dancers must perfect 3,000 different poses like rolling hips, arched backs, and bent feet. Those who wish to learn this dance start when they are young, and teachers are said to use scarves to bring the fingers into the correct position until muscle memory takes over. Notice the extreme hyperextension of the fingers (try doing that with one finger without applying any outside force!). It takes 9 years to learn and perfect the dances. The movements of the whole body work as a kind of sign language where one subtle difference makes a completely different expression. For example, the jeeb, when the thumb and pointer finger are pressed together as the other three fingers fan out is a common symbol in Khmer culture. It can represent anything from bashfulness and love to laughter or sorrow. One hand with the fingers straight up and bent back can mean ‘leave’ while two hands in the same position but crossed at the wrist symbolizes ‘love’.
Apsara Dancers
For centuries, the Apsara dance was passed down from royal family to royal family until the 1950s when Queen Preah Maha Kshatriyani Kossamak chose her granddaughter Princess Norodom Buppha Devi at age 5 to train in the ballet. By age 18, she was awarded the title of Prima Ballerina and toured internationally with the newly created Cambodian Royal Ballet to share Khmer heritage and culture with the world. This was the first time the Apsara was performed outside of the royal court. During the dark days of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 – 1979, thousands of artists, scholars, and intellectuals were tortured and murdered. It’s estimated that over 90% of the dancers and musicians in the Royal Palace and Phnom Penh were imprisoned, tortured, and/or killed. With peace restored in 1991, surviving artists, including Her Royal Highness Princess Buppha Devi herself, began the difficult task of searching for new dancers in the hopes of revitalizing this important piece of cultural heritage.
The key feature of the Apsara dance are the intricate hand movements, of which there are an unbelievable 1,500 of them to learn. The different poses are known as kbach and relate to elements of nature such as flowers, leaves, and fruit. In addition to these kbach, dancers must perfect 3,000 different poses like rolling hips, arched backs, and bent feet. Those who wish to learn this dance start when they are young, and teachers are said to use scarves to bring the fingers into the correct position until muscle memory takes over. Notice the extreme hyperextension of the fingers (try doing that with one finger without applying any outside force!). It takes 9 years to learn and perfect the dances. The movements of the whole body work as a kind of sign language where one subtle difference makes a completely different expression. For example, the jeeb, when the thumb and pointer finger are pressed together as the other three fingers fan out is a common symbol in Khmer culture. It can represent anything from bashfulness and love to laughter or sorrow. One hand with the fingers straight up and bent back can mean ‘leave’ while two hands in the same position but crossed at the wrist symbolizes ‘love’.