Khmer Arts Ensemble (In Order of Appearance) the Lives of Giants Akaeng Khameaso (Child) Chea Socheata Uma Keo Kunthearom
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CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS CAST Sunday, October 2, 2011, 3pm The Lives of Giants Zellerbach Hall CAST Khmer Arts Ensemble (in order of appearance) The Lives of Giants Akaeng Khameaso (child) Chea Socheata Uma Keo Kunthearom Tevabot (male angels) Kong Bonich, Lim Chanboramy, Sao Phirom, Sao Somaly Tep Thida (female angels) Long Chantheary, Mot Pharan, Pum Molyta, Som Saymalyrou Akaeng Khameaso (adult) Rin Sreyleak Preah Eyso (Shiva) Chao Socheata Preah Visnu (Vishnu) Sot Sovanndy Instrumentalists Roneat Ek (xylophone) Nil Sinoeun Sralai (quadruple-reed oboe) Touch Sarin Sampho & Skor Thom (drums) Ros Sokun Choreography, Lyrics & Music Arrangements Sophiline Cheam Shapiro Gong Thom (circle gong) Soun Phally Scenic & Lighting Designs Marcus Doshi Singer Cheam Chanthopeas Costume Designs Merrily Murray-Walsh Dresser Sam Ratha Producer Khmer Arts Costume Makers Angkor Thom Handicrafts, Iris Color Studio, John Shapiro, Executive Director Kum Sokunthea, Hout Sokleng, Sim Chanmoly, Vuthy Tailors and artists of the Khmer Touring General Manager Lisa Booth Management, Inc. Arts Ensemble Deirdre Valente, Vice President The Lives of Giants premiered in the United States on September 25, 2010, at Technical Director Robert W. Henderson Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut. The creation of The Lives of Giants has been made possible, in part, with support from the American Recovery Running Time 90 minutes (without intermission) and Reinvestment Act through the National Endowment for the Arts; the MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation; and the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, A note about Cambodian names: When written or spoken, a person’s family name precedes the first name. The and the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation. honorific is associated with a person’s first name—e.g. Sao Phirom: Sao is the surname, and Ms. Phirom is the proper form of address. Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. 18 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 19 SYNOPSIS PROGRAM NOTES THE LIVES OF GIANTS Choreographer’s Note Dance in Contemporary Cambodia Toni Shapiro-Phim A number of my dances have explored different aspects of the same paradox: No matter how Dancers in Cambodia are responding to a con- promising the rhetoric of change, it often re- temporary environment that includes both sults in the same cycles of abuse and humiliation lightning-speed development and reminders of that precede it. Having grown up in a country a devastatingly violent past. During the Khmer where political systems changed frequently and Rouge regime (1975–1979), nearly a third of often in violent ways, I have long recognized the Cambodia’s population perished. Large num- persistence of corruption, arrogance, rigidity bers of professionally trained dancers died, with and loss of compassion that those with power a mere 10–20 percent surviving the genocide. resort to—abuses that result in poverty, illness, Classical dance, with long historical roots inter- ignorance, humiliation and, in the most radi- twined with spirituality and with the monarchy, cal cases, death among the governed. Power, of was nearly wiped out. With the loss of so much course, manifests itself within every level of soci- embodied knowledge, government arts officials ety—families, schools, places of work, national have publicly prioritized the preservation of governments—and its misuse infiltrates these Cambodia’s traditional dance heritage for more communities from the top down and tends to than 30 years. Stylistic innovation, officials repeat itself. claim, threatens efforts to recover and rebuild In The Lives of Giants, I am looking specifi- Cambodia’s arts. As a result, younger genera- cally at cycles of violence. I believe the relation- tions of dancers—students of genocide survi- ship between the glorification of war and the vors who had danced before the war, and their physical abuse of a child is a close one. Violence students—embody the main force of creativity HE LIVES OF GIANTS is drawn from the With her husband and leader now gone, begets violence. The abused become the abusers. in professional dance circles in Cambodia today. Reamker, the Cambodian version of the Uma turns to Preah Visnu for help. Preah Visnu T Within Cambodian society, state-led terror and Ramayana, an ancient Sanskrit epic. Its princi- declares that the only choice is to kill Akaeng genocide of the recent past has fed contempo- Traditional repertoire and customary themes pals, philosophy and character are fundamen- Khameaso. But Uma disagrees. She wants to rary epidemics of domestic violence and human tal to the cultural consciousness of South and put Akaeng Khameaso in touch with his sense trafficking. This is an unfortunate truth in many Government-sponsored dance activity, beyond Southeast Asians. of humanity so that he will renounce violence. parts of the world, in wealthy nations as well as the teaching and performance of selections Akaeng Khameaso is a giant in Preah Eyso’s Preah Visnu insists that her plan will never work poor ones. from the traditional repertoire of classical and heavenly realm who has been the target of re- but allows her to try. If she fails, he will step in Nevertheless, I believe compassion is an an- folk pieces, includes both the restaging and and slaughter the giant. lentless taunting and teasing by a band of mis- tidote. When we acknowledge our own and our completion of previously unfinished works, and chievous angels since he was a child. Uma dances before Akaeng Khameaso. enemies’ humanity, we create room to step away the creation of new choreographies for state cel- Eventually, he can take no more abuse. He Entranced, he approaches, allowing her to re- from inhumane behavior. I’m a realist and rec- ebrations and festivals. These dances have been complains about his plight to Preah Eyso, plead- direct his voraciousness and rage toward beauty ognize that this is a difficult task. Compassion fashioned strictly within the classical or folk ing for a way to protect himself. Pitying Akaeng and transcendence. As he relaxes and joins in her often loses out to adrenaline-fueled revenge. But movement vocabulary, representing customary Khameaso, Preah Eyso gives the giant a magic dance, an impatient Preah Visnu enters and at- I hope that an alternative path exists. “What themes, such as the celestial, royal and sweep- finger, despite Uma’s protests that this will only tacks. Despite Uma’s attempts to protect the gi- might have been” can become “what can be.” ing mytho-historical focus of the classical rep- beget more trouble. ant, Preah Visnu gets hold of Akaeng Khameaso’s Like many of my compatriots, I have a deep ertoire. Thus, while the production of contem- Akaeng Khameaso celebrates his new weap- finger and points it inward. Emerging from the love of storytelling, particularly in the forms of porary work in the state institutions of the arts, on, though he’s reluctant to use it. Nevertheless, grace of Uma’s dance, Akaeng Khameaso rages folklore and mythology. In The Lives of Giants, including the Secondary School of Fine Arts, is when the angels return and start knocking him at Preah Visnu, proclaiming that he will be re- I have taken an episode from the Reamker epic ongoing, it is most often only specific storylines on the head, he points his finger at them, break- born with even more power in his next life so no that describes a previous life of the vengeful gi- that are new. ing them into pieces. Before long, he becomes one will be able to defeat him. Then he collapses ant king Reap, and given it my own interpre- drunk with power that rivals that of Preah Esyo into Uma’s arms and dies. tive twist. With movement and melodies, cos- “Robam Sahasamay”—contemporary dance and lays waste to heaven. Uma, foreseeing the coming violence, la- tumes and light, The Lives of Giants conjures this Panicked, the angels plea for Preah Eyso’s ments the triumph of violence over compassion. mysterious and magical world as a reflection of Until very recently, discussion of professional help. But, worried for his own safety, he resists our own. Cambodian dance within the country revolved and flees in the opposite direction. Sophiline Cheam Shapiro predominantly around “tradition.” Though 20 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 21 PROGRAM NOTES ABOUT THE ARTISTS innovation has been a hallmark of even tradi- Since 1999, Ms. Cheam Shapiro has been Khmer Arts is an independent nonprofit orga- Guggenheim and Irvine dance fellowships, tional forms of performance, Cambodia’s danc- expanding classical dance’s possibilities through nization founded in 2002 by Sophiline Cheam among many other honors. ers have over the past several years come to trans- the development of original dance dramas that Shapiro and John Shapiro that is dual-based in Born in Phnom Penh, Ms. Cheam Shapiro late the phrase “contemporary dance” as robam break with received storylines, and through ex- Long Beach, California—home to the largest was a member of the first generation to graduate (dance) sahasamay (modern/of the same time perimentation with gesture, vocabulary, part- Cambodian community outside of Southeast from the School of Fine Arts after the fall of Pol period), acknowledging that this is a new con- nering, movement patterns and costume—all of Asia—and in Cambodia. Khmer Arts/Long Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime and was a member struct on their part. Nonetheless, Cambodian which are often officially considered inviolate. Beach encompasses a school, a pre-professional of the dance faculty there from 1988 to 1991. choreographers, and the institutions supporting She also makes pioneering use of traditional company and a Salon Series, which showcases She studied all three major roles for women (ne- their work, are still often tied to concerns about musical arrangements and instrumentation.