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By
: Ann Creevey.
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In the sixties,
Nuth Samony was one of Cambodia's greatest dancers.
He was so outstanding that he was sent to Moscow,
Russia for five years from 1966 to study at the
Grand Theatre.
Then the Pol Pot regime came, and most of his friends
and colleagues were killed. When he returned to
the University of Fine Arts after 1979, there were
very few dancers who returned with him. There were
even fewer teachers left.
"So they said to me, why not change and teach
circus?" he said.
Today Mr. Nuth Samony is Director of the National
Circus School at the Royal University of Fine Arts.
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He said he saw
circus as a new beginning _ a precious piece of Khmer
culture being revived out of destruction.
"Before 1980 there had been no real circus in Cambodia
for hundreds of years," he said. "We know it
is our heritage because circus is carved on the walls
at Angkor, but it was no longer something every Cambodian
knew was their culture, even before Pol Pot. It had been
forgotten. After 1980, circus had a second birth."
In 1981 he went to Moscow again for five more years, this
time to learn the tricks of the circus trade.
"Because circus here had not been alive before, we
had to take some things from European circus, and Vietnam,"
he said. "But the execution is Khmer. Khmer blood
is the blood of art. |
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Circus is
our heritage. The students are here because they
want to be artists."
A Khmer circus performer will undergo nine years
of training on their way to a diploma in circus.
They start learning from as young as nine.
"But they have trouble progressing. Possibilities
to perform in Cambodia are scarce. If we go to the
provinces, people line the boulevards to see us.
But when we sell tickets, no one will come."
There are 67 students including 25 girls at
Mr Nuth Samony's school at the moment, training
to continue the tradition depicted on the walls
of Bayon Temple.
Mrs. Mala Hang Phuong is one of the staff who share
Mr Nuth Samony's passion. She trains jugglers. At
37, she has been doing this job for 10 years. She
makes US$25 a month.
Mr Nuth Samony calls her a member of the first generation
_ the generation he helped to grow from the |
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second birth, in
his second life as an artist.
Today two of her juggling protégés are taking
exams to advance to the final three years of their diploma.
She watched them critically and spoke as they finish their
act. The career is not a lucrative one, she said. She
knows that all too well. But that isn't the point.
"People love circus," she said. "I think
students come to learn for love. They know it is their
heritage."
* The Khmer Circus performs on July 15 and 16 from 6 pm
at the Theater Hall of the Royal University of Fine Arts,
on Street 70, next to the Old Stadium. |
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Suite
B8, Regency Square, InterContinental Hotel, 294 Mao Tse Toung
Boulevard,
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.
Tel: (855) 23 213 133 Fax: (855) 23 213 033
E-mail:
editor@leisurecambodia.com |
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