Greetings Beloved Friends and Family! 

At the end of July 2023, Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA will host two nights of performances featuring original choreography from five senior members of our dance company: Chakra, Chamreoun, Chay, Sopharoth, and Venghour. This event will highlight fresh voices in the world of Khmer performing arts. Our artists are currently creating critically informed works addressing a range of themes including grief, healing, personal growth, identity, and the environment. With your generosity, we can raise $10,000 to fund their projects and finance the costs of labor and production. We hope you can join us to realize a new renaissance in Khmer culture and society. 

About អមោឃបាស - The Next Generation

អមោឃបាស - The Next Generation is a performance program organized by Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA, the first gay dance company in Cambodia. We want to showcase the rich potential of the next generation of Khmer artists, by giving them the opportunity to produce, choreograph, and perform their original creations. We support projects that engage with classical dance, as well as those that question the boundaries between classical and contemporary. Our artists are creating original works speaking to their lives as young Khmer people in our world today. អមោឃបាស (amoghapasa)—meaning “unbreakable rope”—will honor the ancient tradition of Khmer classical dance, while carrying it to the future by empowering the next generation of artists, teachers, producers and leaders.

Chamreoun (left) and Reaksmey writing lyrics for Robam Preah Phirun. Photo: Allan Zheng. 

Little Gesture, Big Impact

Our artists are choreographing new works that will offer new stories, ideas, and values in their projects. We anticipate that creating, producing, and presenting these dances will cost approximately $10,000. These costs include the time, materials, and labor necessary to realize these projects. Your contributions to our event will allow them to hire musicians and dancers, purchase equipment and costuming, rent rehearsal spaces, and acquire appropriate technical support. In the case that we raise more than $10,000, we will use those funds to pay for the continued training and development of our dancers and artists at Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA—as the company is working in an environment of scarce support. 

About Our Artists & Projects

Khuon Chay (ឃុន ចាយ), originally from Kampot, Cambodia, has performed internationally in Berlin at the CTM Festival and Documenta Festival in Kassel as well as domestically throughout Cambodia with Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA. He is also a dance instructor and mentor to his fellow dancers. 

Chay’s project, titled របាំសហធាតុ (Robam Sahatheat), personifies the four elements (ធាតុ) of water, earth, fire, and wind to explore issues of individual greed, desire, and power. As the characters work through their conflicts of interest, the project emphasizes the value of unity (សហ). Chay wants viewers to understand that no individual can live without communication, support, love, and cooperation in the journey of life.

Morn Sopharoth (ម៉ន សុផារ័ត្ន) became a professional dancer at Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA in 2017 following one year of training with Sophiline Arts Ensemble where he initially studied male and demon roles. Through six years at Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA, he has performed domestically and internationally, teaching workshops and performing in countries such as: India, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Germany.

The Cry Under Mount Kailash, choreographed by Sopharoth, is inspired by the sacred ten-headed demon mask of Ravana that is highly respected by Khmer classical dancers. His project plays with contrast, difference and drastic deviation from normality. Sopharoth tries to understand Ravana, the primary antagonist in the Ramayana, in a positive light in order to explore these themes.

Soeurn Chamreoun (សឿន ចំរើន) has studied Khmer classical dance since 2018 under artists Sophiline Cheam-Shapiro and Prumsodun Ok. He has performed internationally in Berlin at the CTM Festival and Documenta Festival in Kassel as well as domestically throughout Cambodia. His projects are especially interested in the preservation and development of Khmer classical dance. 

Chamreoun is inspired by stories from the Reamker (Ramayana) and is choreographing a piece titled Robam Preah Phirun. Robam Preah Phirun, honoring Preah Phirun (Varuna), is a new dance featuring new interpretations of classical dance gestures and outfits derived from the bas-reliefs of Angkor. 

Sokhomsan Chakravartin (សុខុមសាន ចក្រវរ្តិន) has more than ten years of Khmer classical dance training and performance under Prumsodun Ok, Charya Burt, and Reaksmey Lath in Long Beach, California. Chakra is currently pursuing a Bachelors of Arts in Dance at Dickinson College. During his time at Dickinson, he has worked with Valley Traction, an experimental theater company, and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. 

Chakra’s solo choreography, Birthday, grapples with themes surrounding age, identity, and growth. While combining aspects of Khmer classical dance and somatics, Chakra creates a dialogue between these two forms of movement that mirrors his Khmer and American identities.

Than Venghour (ថន វ៉េងហួ) is an emerging artist working across dance, writing, and visual arts who is interested in issues surrounding gender, environment, and war. Venghour has been involved with Minor Act, Trinity La MaMa, and New York Live Arts, He is currently an undergraduate at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, studying dance and choreography and creative writing. 

Dear Ma is an experimental dance, choreographed by Venghour, exploring stories of trauma, love, and loss belonging to a boy whose mother recently passed away. Drawing from Khmer classical and contemporary dance, the work calls for a collective embodiment of dance spirits once earned now lost after his mother’s death, through minimalism in movement, light, narration, and instrumentation. 

Sopharoth (right) and Chamreoun (left) testing kbach at Thamanon Temple during a research trip to Angkor. Photo: Allan Zheng. 

About Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA

Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA is Cambodia’s first gay dance company. It commits to providing new life to a tradition that remains vulnerable following a history of genocide and civil strife. Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA wants to elevate the quality of life and expression for LGBTQ+ people in Cambodia and all over the world. The company is recognized internationally, appearing in major news platforms such as BBC, PBS, AFP, SCMP, Channel NewsAsia, Phnom Penh Post, and Asahi Shimbun among others. At the company, the dancers rehearse the traditional Khmer classical dance repertoire, choreograph new dance dramas, and engage in social advocacy to create a harmonious world of respect, knowledge, and love. 

To learn more, please visit: www.prumsodun.com