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Tuchman-Rosta, Celia UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Performance, Practice, and Possibility: How Large-Scale Processes Affect the Bodily Economy of Cambodia's Classical Dancers Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4qb8m3cx Author Tuchman-Rosta, Celia Publication Date 2018 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Performance, Practice, and Possibility: How Large Scale Processes Affect the Bodily Economy of Cambodia’s Classical Dancers A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Celia Johanna Tuchman-Rosta March 2018 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Sally Ness, Chairperson Dr. Yolanda Moses Dr. Christina Schwenkel Dr. Deborah Wong Copyright by Celia Johanna Tuchman-Rosta 2018 The Dissertation of Celia Johanna Tuchman-Rosta is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of many inspiring individuals who have taken the time to guide my research and writing in small and large ways and across countries and oceans. To start, I thank Sophiline Cheam Shapiro and John Shapiro, co-founders of Khmer Arts, and Michael Sullivan the former director (and his predecessor Philippe Peycam) at the Center For Khmer Studies who provided the formal letters of affiliation required for me to begin my long-term research in Cambodia. Without them this research would not exist. I also thank all of the individuals who provided access to their organizations without whom I would not have been able to attain the full breadth of data collected: Fred Frumberg and Kang Rithisal at Amrita, Neak Kru Vong Metry at Apsara Art Association, Arn Chorn-Pond and Phloeun Prim at Cambodian Living Arts (and Ieng Sithul and Nop Thyda at the Folk and Classical Dance Class), Horm Bunheng and Chhon Sophearith at the Cambodian Cultural Village, Mam Si Hak at Koulen Restaurant, Ravynn Karet-Coxin at the Preah Ream Buppha Devi Conservatoire (NKF), Annie and Dei Lei at Smile of Angkor, Ouk Sothea at the School of Art, Siem Reap, Mann Kosal at Sovanna Phum, and Bun Thon at Temple Balcony Club. I thank the Cambodian government officials and UNESCO officials who took time out of their busy schedules to discuss Cambodian dance development and production: H.E. So Mara, Ok Sophon, Hab Touch, Proeung Chhieng, Mao Keng, Sun Sovanny, Vin Laychour, Hun Pen, Philippe Delanghe and Blaise Kilian. I thank all the dance teachers who gave me insight into the practice of dance through their attempts to train me in the basics of classical and folk dance, and their iv patient descriptions of the practice, their own experiences, and their thoughts on the future of dance production. They are too numerous to list here, but those that deeply guided my understanding of classical dance, its preservation, and its development are: Arn Sophearika, Kao Sareum, Kim Boran, Luong Sokham, Nuo Sokha, Penh Yom, Rouen Sarun, Sao Sokun, and Soeur Vuthy. I thank all of the dancers and performers who took time out of their hectic schedules to talk to me about their daily lives, their future dreams, and their fears, and who tolerated my shadow as I followed them from classes to rehearsals to performances. Their openness and forbearance made it possible for me to understand the issues the younger generations face in Cambodia’s dance world. I cannot name all of them here, but some particularly tolerant performers require special mention: Chamroeun Sophea, Chey Chankethya, Chuvman (Belle) Sodachivy, Hoy Sovan, Hou Cheychanrith, Ieu Sopheakagna, Khut Sothavy, Khuy Srey La, Leu Sivmeng, Meng Sopheary, Nisay, Nget Rady, Pietra, Ros Chenda, Seng Sophea, Soun Somphors, Sot Sovanndy, Soy Chanborey, Suon Dany and Um Sreyvan. I thank the many arts administrators who guided me through the ins and outs of performing arts education and production and provided their thoughts on the future of Cambodian dance practices. A few warrant special mention: Chum Chaveasna, Kor Borin, Nguon Vuthy, Song Seng, Soun Bun Rith, and Yim Sor. This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance of my committee. I thank my Chair, Sally Ness for her thoughtful and supportive feedback and her patience through several iterations of the dissertation. I thank Yolanda Moses, v Christina Schwenkel, and Deborah Wong for their thoughtful comments and guidance throughout my graduate career. I thank the faculty in the Anthropology Department, the Southeast Asia: Text, Ritual and Performance program, and the Department of Dance which helped me look at classical dance from a multitude of different perspectives. I also thank my cohort and the many graduate students from other departments who were so foundational in the development of my ideas. My research and analysis also were also guided by insightful conversations with many dance scholars and scholars working in Cambodia. In particular, Toni Shapiro has continued to provide inspiration for my work since our first meeting in August of 2008. After she introduced me to the world of the Royal Ballet in 2009, Suppya Nut has continually challenged me to think about my data in new ways. Jeff Freidman introduced me to classical Cambodian dance as an undergraduate and pointed me toward the Anthropology Department at UCR. This research would not have been possible without funding from the University of California, Riverside (a Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellowship Award and a Graduate Division Fee Fellowship), two Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships to study Khmer at SEASSI, a Fulbright IIE, and a Center For Khmer Studies Fellowship Award. Lastly, I thank my family for their support and understanding, particularly my parents who served as sounding boards and copy editors throughout the dissertation writing process. My work would not have been possible without them. A portion of this dissertation is a revised and expanded version of material I published in 2015 titled “Intangible Heritage in Motion: Classical Cambodian Dance at a vi New Year’s Festival in Siem Reap” that appears in Dance, Narratives, Heritage: 28th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology. Material I published in 2014 in “From Ritual Form to Tourist Attraction: Negotiating the Transformation of Classical Cambodian Dance in a Changing World” that appears in the Asian Theater Journal is cited in the dissertation as well. vii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to Lok Da Chheng Phon who devoted his life to the perpetuation of the arts in Cambodia and to the all the generations of dancers who continue to maintain and develop Cambodian artistic practices inside and outside of the country. viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Performance, Practice, and Possibility: How Large Scale Processes Affect the Bodily Economy of Cambodia’s Classical Dancers by Celia Johanna Tuchman-Rosta Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Anthropology University of California, Riverside, March 2018 Dr. Sally Ness, Chairperson Classical dance has been tightly woven into discourses of national and international heritage as a representation of Cambodian cultural identity, particularly after the country’s devastating civil war in the 1970s. This dissertation articulates how Cambodia’s classical dancers and teachers negotiate the effects of large-scale processes, such as heritage development policies, on the art form and their bodies. Several scholars and dancers have developed perspectives on the revitalization efforts of the classical dance form in the period after the Khmer Rouge Regime, but this dissertation fills a gap in the documentation of the role that international nongovernmental organizations and tourism have on dance production. The dissertation research in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in 2011 and 2012 traced the training and performance activities of practitioners at a broad range of arts NGOs and ix tourism venues to examine the large-scale processes that affected the lives of practitioners. To demonstrate the deeply woven connections among global heritage, tourism, NGOs, nationhood and Cambodia’s dance artists, this dissertation first articulates the process through which classical dance transformed from ritual practice to global commodity while maintaining ritual functions. Second, it demonstrates how practitioners navigate their personal corporeal economies—the labor of practice and performance—to balance the benefits of their bodily work with the possible alienation of their bodies being commoditized. Third, it shows how UNESCO intangible heritage directives are interpreted and embedded in local contexts, creating paradoxes for dance practitioners. Fourth, it develops a web-based model for understanding classical dance production, preservation and development in Cambodia—a social web that practitioners must navigate to survive. And finally, it further develops Bruner’s (2005) borderzone concept, expanding it into a borderzone field, to analyze the experiences of both audiences and performers in tourist settings. The amalgamated framework proposed in the dissertation, including tourism, heritage, development, and economic theory is necessary to peel away layers of phenomena from the global to the local while unpacking their links to the lived experiences of classical dance practitioners. x Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................
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