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 Ek (xylophone) Nil Sinoeun (quadruple- ) Touch Sarin Sampho & Skor Thom (drums) Ros Sokun Choreography, Lyrics & Music Arrangements Sophiline Cheam Shapiro 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 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.

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THE LIVES OF GIANTS Choreographer’s Note Dance in Contemporary 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 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. classical dance in Cambodian communities ang, nearong and yeak), which is rare. With the national identity and history, and influenced These rigorous explorations link Ms. Cheam throughout California. school’s ensemble, she toured India, the Soviet by a traditionalist discourse. Many sahasamay Shapiro to dance-makers across the globe, such The Khmer Arts campus in Cambodia is Union, the United States and . She im- dances employ common conventions of Western as Senegal’s Germaine Acogny, Indonesia’s located in Takhmao, about seven miles outside migrated to Southern California in 1991, where contemporary (and other) dance such as pedes- Sardono and the late Chadralaka from India. Phnom Penh’s city center. It is fast becoming an she studied dance ethnology at UCLA. She is trian costumes and movements, a variety of mu- In The Lives of Giants, you see and hear all important international center for dance train- co-founder and Artistic Director of Khmer Arts. sical accompaniment, innovative choreographic of these elements at play. Choreographic pat- ing, exploration, creation and performance. Ms. Cheam Shapiro lectures and teaches patterns, projections and spoken word. These terns are dynamic and sometimes asymmetri- Khmer Arts is the producer of the Khmer Arts at conferences and universities around the dances have often taken as a central theme the cal; movement flows out of but is not restricted Ensemble, Ms. Cheam Shapiro’s company of world, and her essays have been published in desire of the younger generation to explore new to codified gesture, vocabulary or posture. highly accomplished dancers and musicians. numerous anthologies. creative grounds while still honoring their coun- Melodies that never before accompanied classi- Khmer Arts also conducts media projects and try’s long artistic heritage. Despite occasional cal dance are employed to great emotional effect. has established an important center for dance Rin Sreyleak (Akaeng Khameaso) has danced criticism from teachers and peers for straying Merrily Murray-Walsh’s costumes synchronize scholarship and documentation. the coveted role of Ream Eyso and has per- from strictly “Cambodian” performances, these with Marcus Doshi’s scenic abstractions of water formed on four continents with the Khmer artists are exploring their unique creative voices and light while referring to traditional motifs in Sophiline Cheam Shapiro is a choreogra- Arts Ensemble. In 2009, she was a visiting art- through movement and music, looking to lit- decorative patterns and accessories. The lighter pher, dancer, vocalist and educator. Her work ist at Dance Advance’s “By Gesture/By Word: erature, biography and autobiography, emotion, weight of the printed costumes harmonizes with has toured to four continents, hosted by such Modifying the Classical” at Philadelphia’s nature and politics for inspiration. both canonical and Ms. Cheam Shapiro’s inno- notable venues as New York’s Joyce Theater, Performance Garage. Before joining the Khmer vative movements. Akaeng Khameaso’s mask in- Cal Performances, Cambodia’s Les Nuits Arts Ensemble in 2007, she studied classical Expanding possibilities corporates a metal mesh with traditional papier- d’Angkor Festival, Walt Disney Concert Hall, dance at Phnom Penh’s School of the Fine Arts. mâché elements, allowing dancers to breathe and the Venice Biennale, Hong Kong Arts Festival, The neoclassical choreography of Sophiline see more easily. Carolina Performing Arts, University Musical Chao Socheata (Preah Esyo) has performed Cheam Shapiro represents another approach Society/Ann Arbor, Reunion Island’s La Foire leading roles in Shir-Ha-Shirim/Munkul Lokey, to creativity. Inspired by themes other than Internationale des Mascareignes, Amsterdam’s Pamina Devi, Ream Eyso & Moni Mekhala, the divide between tradition and innovation, This essay is adapted from “Professional Dancers and their Het Muziektheater and Vienna’s New Crowned Seasons of Migration and Spiral XII throughout Contemporary Context in Cambodia,” http://www.goethe Ms. Cheam Shapiro experiments with and flexes .de/ins/id/lp/prj/tac/zgt/kam/enindex.htm. Hope Festival. Works include Samritechak Asia, Europe and North America. Before join- the muscles of the robust classical aesthetic. Her (2000), The Glass Box (2002), Seasons of Migration ing the Khmer Arts Ensemble in 2006, she stud- company, the Khmer Arts Ensemble, established (2005) and Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic ied classical dance at the School of Fine Arts. in Cambodia in 2007, performs both contem- Flute (2006). Spiral XII (2008), a collaboration porary creations and works from the classical with composer Chinary Ung, was commis- Keo Kunthearom (Uma) has performed as canon. Ms. Cheam Shapiro has a firm base as an sioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Preah Mae in Sophiline Cheam Shapiro’s Rice accomplished performer and teacher of classical Munkul Lokey/Shir Ha-Shirim (2008) was com- as well as the solo Neang Neak from Seasons dance. She was a member of the first generation missioned by the Guggenheim Museum’s Works of Migration. She has toured widely with the to study dance professionally after the ousting of & Process series. Khmer Arts Ensemble. She is a graduate of the the Khmer Rouge. In 2009, Ms. Cheam Shapiro was named School of Fine Arts. a National Heritage Fellow, a lifetime honor awarded by the National Endowment for the Sot Sovanndy (Preah Visnu) has performed a Arts, and a USA Knight Fellow. She was award- wide range of characters, including the role of ed the Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture in 2006, Preah Arun Tipadey in Pamina Devi and Ream and has received Creative Capital, Durfee, Eyso, one of classical dance’s most challenging

22 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 23 ABOUT THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS and important roles. Before joining the Khmer Government at Mills College in Oakland. After performance. LBMI tours artists worldwide, Arts Ensemble in 2006, she studied classical graduation, she worked three years of intern- produces U.S. tours for artists from abroad, dance at the School of Fine Arts. ship at the Oregon Shakespearean Festival. She and initiates and manages special projects. completed her M.F.A. degree in costume design Since 1983, LBMI programs have taken place Nil Sinoeun (musician) learned to play roneat at Carnegie-Mellon University, and landed her in more than 300 cities in 30 countries on six ek (xylophone) with his father, Nul Nil, who first design job back at the Festival. Early in her continents. Current and upcoming projects in- was a professor of music at the School of Fine career, she served as design assistant to John clude Handspring Puppet Company, Spirit of Arts. Since joining the Khmer Arts Ensemble in Conklin and Tony Walton. Since then she’s de- Uganda, Hugo & Ines, and Doug Varone and 2006, he has performed throughout Cambodia signed for television, film, Imax, theater and op- Dancers. LBMI is General Manager of Center and in Europe and North America. He also era. In recent years, her most important ongoing Stage, a new cultural exchange program initiat- teaches peat music to students in the village collaboration has been with the theater and op- ed by the U.S. Department of State, and served of Preak L’vea, where he lives. era director Tazewell Thompson, for whom she as the inaugural General Manager for State’s has designed productions at Glimmerglass and DanceMotion United States from 2010–2012. Marcus Doshi (scenic and lighting designer) de- New York City Operas, Opera Columbus, Arena LBMI has worked with Cambodian perform- signs for theater, opera and dance, as well as col- Stage, Westport Playhouse, Hartford Stage ing artists for more than a decade. LBMI co- laborating with artists and architects on a wide Company, the Children’s Theatre Company, produced Dance: The Spirit of Cambodia in 2001, array of non-theatrical ventures. Previous work Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory toured Weyreap’s Battle (Amrita Performing with Sophiline Cheam Shapiro includes light- Theatre, City Theater Company and Florida Arts) in 2007, is the performing arts consultant ing for Samritechak and scenery and lighting Stage. She has had the good fortune to work for Season of Cambodia, a major New York City for Pamina Devi. His work has been seen inter- with numerous noteworthy directors, including festival scheduled for 2013, and has served as nationally in Edinburgh, London, Amsterdam, Carroll O’Connor and Robert Falls (theater), General Touring Manager for the Khmer Arts Castres, Venice, Vienna, Mumbai, Delhi and Michael Dinner and Tommy Schlamme (televi- Ensemble since 2004. Phnom Penh. Recent designs in the United sion), and Paul Newman (film). States include Measure for Measure, Othello (Lortel Nomination) and Hamlet (Drama Desk Robert W. Henderson, Jr. (technical director) Special thanks to the presenters of this tour: Nomination) for Theatre for a New Audience, is a New York-based lighting designer. Recent Celesta Billeci and her staff at Arts & Lectures, A Boy and His Soul for the Vineyard, Things of credits include Khmeropedies I & II—Festival UCSB; Matías Tarnopolsky and the staff at Cal Dry Hours for NYTW, Queens Blvd (The Musical) of Arts & Ideas, Connecticut, and New York Performances; and Margaret Lawrence of the and The First Breeze of Summer at the Signature, City’s Baryshnikov Arts Center; Christmas Hopkins Center at Dartmouth for ongoing sup- and work with the New Group, Soho Rep, Joyce, Carol (Associate Designer)—Hartford Stage, port. Thanks also to Jane Forde, Cheri Opperman, Lincoln Center, Chicago Shakespeare, Seattle Connecticut; Mary’s Wedding and Tazewell Jane Preston and Rebecca Blunk. Rep, Portland Center Stage, Yale Rep, Hartford Thompson’s A Christmas Carol—Westport Stage Company, Seattle Opera, Virginia Opera, Country Playhouse, Connecticut; Rent, The Boston Lyric Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas Laramie Project, I Am My Own Wife, among Khmer Arts City, Greenwich Music Festival and Florentine others—Theatre Three, New York; Associate www.khmerarts.org Opera, among others. He has collaborated on Designer for the Permanent Exhibition at the a number of competitions and exhibition light- Museum of Chinese in America, New York; Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, Artistic Director ing designs, including the permanent exhibition and, select Harry Winston and Barney’s New John Shapiro, Executive Director at the Museum of Chinese in America: With a York display windows. He also worked on the Single Step: Stories in the Making of America. He international premiere of the new opera Where Serey Tep, Managing Director, has led workshops exploring the interaction of Elephants Weep presented in Phnom Penh. Khmer Arts Academy light and movement on the stage, most recently Mr. Henderson received his M.F.A. from Chum Chanveasna, Company Manager, in Jakarta, Indonesia. He holds degrees from N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of the Arts Department Khmer Arts Ensemble Wabash College and the Yale School of Drama. of Design. Penh Yom and Meas Saem, Khmer Arts Merrily Murray-Walsh (costume designer) be- Lisa Booth Management, Inc. (LBMI) is a Ensemble Master Artists gan her studies of costume design as an under- New York City-based producing and man- Chheng Phon, advisor emeritus graduate majoring in American History and agement firm specializing in contemporary

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