#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 15

Day 15

Where: The backroom at Vego Salad Bar, St 294.

Why dance?: Well, it makes work more interesting at least.

Today is Monday. It's the day everyone goes back to work, and me too. My office is a bit moveable, certainly, but nevertheless, there were many errands to be run and work to be done. At the point in the afternoon that this picture was taken, there was something else that was very important:

Finding air-conditioning.

And besides, isn't everything better in an attitude penchée?

PS: Are you wondering how I choose these pictures, or what the project is all about? Check out the "About  #100daysofdance" tab above, or just click here.

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 14

Day 14

Where: At the bar, the Flicks Community Movie House (1, not 2). 

Why dance?: Because I'm home! 

Bangkok is cool. There are cool things to see and do. But it is so big. There is too much, and so much, and for three days, it's just too much to handle. So while I'm never really sure how I feel about Phnom Penh, it was simple enough this weekend -- it's home. It's familiar, even comfortable. Over a year and a half of living here, and however much I might think otherwise sometimes -- I've settled in. 

I was happy to go for the weekend, and happy to come home. As it should be.

#100daysofdance goes to Bangkok: day 13

Day 13

Where: the dance studio at Bangkok City Ballet, just after class.

Why dance?: dance studios are beautiful. Anywhere in the world, they're similar, and when you walk inside, it's like coming home. I was here for an open class, which kicked my butt, but to dance in a studio this pretty? Yes please.

#100daysofdance goes to Bangkok: Day 12

Day 12

Where: Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd floors of BMK mall, Bangkok, Thailand. 

Why dance?: Lest you protest this is not a "dancing picture", let me just say that 1) it's a picture of a reflection on the ceiling, and 2) that is a perfect 5th position arm. 

I was in the mall to eat at the food court, which is remarkably cheap (though the noodles I had were a little too greasy for their own good). The mall to me was a mashup of a Cambodian market and an American shopping mall, and the food court was a fascinating experience of cash cards and a refund center you probably need a GPS to locate. Actually, my main impression of Bangkok so far is that it seems like Phnom Penh 50 years from now. It's an interesting place, but very big. It's easy to get lost in, but I suppose -- if you're in a reflection, you always know where you are! 

#100daysofdance goes to Bangkok: Day 11

Day 11

Where: In front of the Saxophones jazz club, near Victory Monument, Bangkok

Why dance?: I decided, sort of on a whim, to go to Bangkok and visit a friend while she's still here. It's a hop skip and a jump from Phnom Penh, only an hour and change flight, and I figured since I have a place to stay currently, why not. 

This particular club had a cozy, laid-back feel, lots of dark wood and cool lighting. There was a live band jamming away and any number of cherry-induced cocktails that were too sweet for their own good. It wasn't much for talking -- clearly, you come for the music -- but it was a very nice place to chill. 

I'm just outside the door here, doing some strange version of apsara. Why not? 

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 11 coming soon

Hi all --

I've been traveling for most of the day -- I'm spending the weekend in Bangkok and wifi is a bit hard to come by where I'm staying.

Today's picture WILL be taken today, but posted tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience! Hang tight for some awesome Bangkok photos this weekend!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 10

Day 10

Where: The studio at Cambodian Living Arts. 

Why dance?: I choose this picture today in honor of a couple people I care a lot about who are having a rough go of it. Sometimes everything is cool and we can waltz around in malls or fly out of pools, but sometimes everything isn't cool. Sometimes doors close and the sky falls down. Sometimes -- as most expats here -- I just want to leave (though I don't today, it does happen). 

So we have to just let the sky fall, but remember that it only does so to make a new one above, that doors close but windows open. And sometimes, we have to just curl up in a corner and wait until tomorrow, because the cool thing about tomorrow is that we get to start again. 

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 9

Day 9

Where: Sovanna shopping mall, Phnom Penh

Why dance?: I was here to eat at Master Suki Soup with some friends from my former workplace. It's a mall much like any other: food, games, and of course shopping. On the left in this picture is a shop of ripped copies of Chinese, Korean, and English movies and CDs, but there's really everything. Because it's Cambodia, they'll have some ten shoe shops in a row, then the sports shops, then electronics, etc. On the floor I'm coming down from, there's even a few bumper cars arenas.

I love escalators, as a side note. I have a dream of doing a flash mob or a site-specific on an escalator at some point. Here, I'm just playing around on the ride down!

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Bonus post!

What's this all about?

The other day, when I shared my project with my colleagues at Cambodian Living Arts, one of them sent on some pictures from a recent workshop and asked if I could post them. Unfortunately, I can't feature it as a daily picture because one of my rules is that the picture has to be taken the day it's posted, but I decided it would be fun to celebrate one week of this craziness and do a bonus post!

The workshop took place at CLA and one of the international schools in town, with a group of students from Australia and the US. They were learning some of the traditional dances. Here's a picture of the CLA students showing them how it's done:

You can see the traditional straight arms and the hands bent backwards. Cambodian classical dance tends to be very slow, but the monkey dance and the folk dances can be very lively. 

Since the students were going to be attending a wedding as part of their trip, the CLA students spent a bit of time in the workshop teaching them some of the traditional dances. In the picture below, they're doing the "rom vong" dance, which essentially means "circle". And they do -- it goes in a circle. It's simple enough, 3-4 small steps and the hands circling, but of course, it's more complicated than it seems! 

Thanks a lot to CLA for sending this on, and by the way -- if you have dancing pictures, send them on! I'll be happy to feature a few guest pictures along the way.

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 8

Day 8

Where: The balcony at the Flicks 1 (also where I live.)

Why dance?: Today is kind of cheating - I'm not really "dancing". I'll make up for it with a guest post of real dance happening. But I decided to go for this one because it's a day off for me, and I've been quite tired after a busy weekend. The chairs on the Flicks balcony are perfect for curling up on and watching the world go by, or putting your headphones in and dancing in your mind. 

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 7

Day 7

Where: Rambutan Resort, st 71, Phnom Penh. 

Who: Me and my friend Jois, a generally wonderful human being. 

Why dance?: Well, what else are you going to do on a hot Sunday afternoon but go to the pool? We are in the hot season in Phnom Penh. It will roast for the next couple months before the rains come. And it really does get hot. I just discovered this place -- which is actually a hotel, but the pool is available to use so long as you buy a drink or two -- a week ago and decided to come back with a few friends for a Sunday afternoon pool party. A raucous and wonderful time was had by all. 

This picture came about when we were playing around in the pool, and Jois decided we should re-enact the famous moment from Dirty Dancing. You know it -- Nobody puts Baby in the corner! Naturally, this was taken a few seconds before I went headfirst into the water, but the picture doesn't lie! 

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 6

Day 6

Where: Upstairs in the gallery at Java Café (www.javaarts.org). 

Who: Yours truly.

Why dance?: Today's photo wasn't planned. I had a lot of work to do and came here to do it. I happened to walk by this exhibit, and the picture appeared in my head. So I had to ask my first random stranger to take a picture of me dancing in a random place. 

Java Café is a generally cool space with as a café and a gallery, with installations from both international and local artists. Right now, it's featuring the work of Nicolas C. Grey (www.nicolascgrey.com). The installation is called "Horror Vacui: The Interior World". Horror Vacui means "fear of the empty" -- and every spare inch of the space is covered with drawings. I only looked up the installation details while writing this post, so I find it interesting that my first instinct was this movement. 

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 5

Day 5

Where: Central School of Ballet Phnom Penh (www.centralschoolofballet.com)

Who: Me and my friend Stephen, the artistic director of this lovely establishment (which is also where I go to train and which will probably reappear on this blog later in the project).

Why dance?: Stephen and I are rehearsing for a project in May. It's a very classically Russian ballet piece...set to the music of Lady Gaga. It's the first time I've really done pas-de-deux work and my abs are shouting, but the Spanish flair is really cool. The studio is also lovely -- it has sprung floors and mirrors, though as you can see there is the pillar to deal with. 

Dancing with Stephen is a real pleasure because we speak the same language in so many ways. The tattoo on my leg, which reads "Without dance, life has no meaning" in Khmer, was a copy of the same one on Stephen's forearm (can you spot it?). Dance for us is how we process life, how we feel alive. This is the way the afternoon started -- and continued on an emotional journey through the evening (hence why I'm posting late). 

Why dance? 

Because without it, we are lost. 

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 4

Day 4

Where: The dance studio at Cambodiana Hotel

Who: These are four of the six dancers that I work with on a weekly basis at Cambodian Television Network. We are the "slow team", so they are the backup dancers for the ballads on CTN's weekend concert series. 

Why dance?: This is just part of our usual rehearsals, every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Here they are practicing one of the songs we have for Sunday this week. The movements are old -- I think they learned them almost a year ago --but since many of the songs are similar to each other and I can't choreograph 3 new songs per week, we use old movements with the new songs. 

This picture, I should note, bugs the crap out of me. Why? Because they aren't exactly together. If I had a dollar for every time I told them to dance "sma-uh knea" (the same, together) -- I'd be a very rich girl. 

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 3

Day 3

Where: The balcony outside the rehearsal room at Cambodian Living Arts

Who: This is Dara. He is an 18-year-old Cambodian dancer, trained in classical and folk dance through the program at Cambodian Living Arts. I met him over a year and a half ago during the seven weeks of choreography workshops I gave at CLA when I first got to Cambodia -- indeed, the reason I originally came here. Dara is a very talented dancer and impressed me from the beginning -- since then, I've been finding excuses to work with him. So far, that counts for five performances already! 

Why dance?: Dara and I are currently rehearsing for two performances at the Sibu International Dance Festival in Malaysia (which will happen during this project). Our main performance is a duet about two people who are in love, but speak different movement languages (me ballet, him Cambodian dance), and have to negotiate their differences. Here, Dara is doing his own "Cambodian contemporary" movement, with Phnom Penh behind him and a traditional pedestal used to give offerings to the ancestors next to him. You can definitely expect to see more of Dara in this series! 

#100daysofdance (v. Cambodia): Day 2

Day 2

Where: The downstairs gallery space at the Cambodian Living Arts office. 

Story: This is not my motorcycle -- it's much prettier than mine. But I was leaving the office and I saw all of the motos inside for lunch, to keep them from the hot sun and from anyone with itchy fingers walking by, and thought I'd use it for today's photo. While this moto is parked now and it would be a terrible idea to actually dance on a moving moto, traffic in Cambodia is its own kind of dance -- a lot of swerving and honking. 

Also, notice the traditional mask to the left -- I think it's a monkey mask, but it could also be a giant mask (will my Cambodian friends clarify?!). It's used for traditional dances, which have 4 main roles: female, male, monkey, and giant. I'm dancing my own traditional style -- ballet! 

#100DaysofDance (v. Cambodia): Day 1

Welcome to 100 Days of Dance, version Cambodia!

What is this, you ask?

It's exactly what it sounds like! It's 100 days of dancing photos, to celebrate dance and to celebrate the fact that it happens all over the world --even Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

There are three rules:

1. One picture per day -- and it must be taken that day (no old stock photos allowed!)
2. The picture doesn't have to be professional quality and it doesn't have to be a full body shot, but the dance movement must be clearly visible. 
3. Each picture has to come with a short story -- what, who, where, when, etc. 

Got it? 

It starts today, March 17, and ends June 25. In the meantime, you can find the pictures on Instagram with the tag #100daysofdance and #100DODCambodia, and of course, here on the blog with the stories that go with. 

What do you need to do? 

Share it! Also, if you have questions about the pictures or the story, you'd like more information about the place or anything that's going on in the picture, feel free to ask! I'll be delighted to respond. 

With no further ado, I present the first picture and first story. 

Day 1: 

Where: Downstairs at The Flicks Community Movie House, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Who: Me

Why dance?: Today, I'm dancing because it's the first Monday since I left my office job. I've moved from 3 part-time jobs to two, and I did because I wanted -- you guessed it -- more time to focus on dance projects. So what better way to celebrate than by dancing?!