Program: Cambodian Dance and Music with Somaly Hay
Subject
Somaly Hay
(Cambodian, 1959 - 2016)
Date1994-1995
MediumPaper
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.111.9
DescriptionProgram for the Living Legends Performance Series presentation of Cambodian Dance and Music with Somaly Hay and dancers and a pin peat ensemble of musicians held at Charter Oak Cultural Center in 1994-1995.
NotesSubject Note: "Living Legends: Connecticut Master Traditional Artists" was a multi-year project to showcase the excellence and diversity of folk artists living and practicing traditional arts throughout the state. The first CCHAP Director, Rebecca Joseph, developed the first exhibition in 1991, displaying photographic portraits along with art works, and performances representing fifteen artists from different communities, at the Institute for Community Gallery at 999 Asylum Avenue in Hartford. In 1993, the next CCHAP Director, Lynne Williamson, organized two exhibitions of the photographic portraits from the original Living Legends exhibit, at the State Legislative Offices and at Capital Community-Technical College in Hartford. The photographs were also displayed in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC in October 1994, with the help of Connecticut Representative Nancy Johnson. Also in 1993, a grant from NEA Folk Arts was awarded to CCHAP to expand and tour the original exhibit and create a video to accompany it. The Connecticut Humanities Council and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts supported an exhibit catalogue and a performance series. CCHAP began fieldwork around the state in 1994 to document several of the artists involved in the first exhibit and add new artists. The expanded version of Living Legends opened at ICR's Gallery at its new office space at 2 Hartford Square West, then traveled to several sites in 1994 and 1995, including the Norwich Arts Council, the Torrington Historical Society, and the New England Folklife Center, Boott Mills Museum at Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell Massachusetts. CCHAP along with folklorist David Shuldiner produced a video based on images taken of the artists at work and audio interviews conducted with them. Portraits and images of the artists working were taken by photographer Gale Zucker. A catalogue of the images, art works, and texts based on the artist interviews was compiled by CCHAP and designed by Dan Mayer who also served as the exhibition designer.Thirteen visual artists were included in the second Living Legends project: Eldrid Arntzen, Norwegian rosemaling; Qianshen Bai, Chinese seal carving; Katrina Benneck, German scherenschnitt; Alice Brend, Pequot ash basket making; Romulo Chanduvi, Peruvian wood carving; Laura Hudson, African-American quilt making; Ilias Kementzides, Pontian Greek lyra making and playing; Sotha Keth and Sophanna Keth Yos, Cambodian dance costume making; Keith Mueller, decoy carving; Bernabela Quinones, Puerto Rican mundillo lace; Walter Scadden, decorative ironwork; Nucu Stan, Romanian straw pictures. Five performing artists were presented during the first Living Legends project: Sonal Vora, Indian Odissi dance; Somaly Hay, Cambodian court dance; Ilias Kementzides, Pontian Greek lyra; Abraham Adzenyah, Ghanaian music and drumming; and La Primera Orquesta de Cuatros, Puerto Rican cuatro group.
Subject Note: CCHAP collaborated with Charter Oak Cultural Center to produce three performance series featuring Connecticut traditional musicians and ensembles. The first, in 1994-1995, presented artists who had been part of CCHAP’s Living Legends exhibit project: Somaly Hay, Cambodian court dance; Canto Isleño playing música jibara; Ilias Kementzides with Pontian Greek dance music on lyra; West Indian drumming with Abraham Adzenyah; and Sonal Vora performing Indian Odissi dance.
Biographical Note: Somaly Hay was a Cambodian court dancer trained from a very young age at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh by revered teachers Soth Sam On, Aum Prong, and Chhea Samy. Cambodian classical dance has been part of royal court life in Cambodia for over a thousand years. On the walls of the temples at Angkor Wat, apsara, celestial dancers carved in stone, have provided the inspirations for court dance characters. Court dance is essentially a female tradition, with women performing the main roles of prince, princess, and Giant. An unusually versatile artist, Somaly could dance each of these characters, and specialized in the difficult role of the Giant. For this role she was mentored by the master of all masked dances who also had extensive knowledge of all roles, dances, songs, history, and repertoire in Cambodian court dance. This teacher gave Somaly deep insights into the secret things that she had done when she was a dancer. Somaly dedicated her own teaching to the memory of this master, Soth Sam On.
During the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975-1979, eleven members of Somaly’s family were killed. Surviving the upheaval in their country through strength, intelligence, and determination, Somaly along with her husband and brother escaped to the U.S. in 1981, and other family members followed later. She was one of the few court dancers remaining alive who had learned in the traditional way. In the U.S., Somaly’s husband Khandarith sometimes accompanied her performances as a vocalist, while her brother, Sotha, and sister, Sophanna, created elaborate costumes for her roles. From 1991 to 1995, she was a master dancer in the Cambodian Artists Project at Jacob’s Pillow, and contributed to an important film documentary project on Cambodian dance. As a performer Somaly danced with the Apsara Ensemble led by the renowned musician Sam Ang Sam. She performed either solo or as part of a troupe at organizations including Connecticut College, Angkor Dance Theatre, and Cambridge Multicultural Council, as well as in New York at the Asian Music Society and World Music Institute. Somaly was deeply involved in New England Cambodian community activities, especially New Year celebrations and performances at local temples.
The Connecticut Commission on the Arts recognized Somaly as a Master Teaching Artist, and she won a Commission Fellowship Award for choreography in 1999. In addition to residencies in schools from Connecticut to Alaska, Somaly taught folk, social, and classical dance to many young Cambodians in their communities. Somaly also trained her daughters and nieces to dance with her, and mentored three apprentices over four years in CCHAP’s Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Somaly produced an instructional video of the roles and gestures of Cambodian dance for distance learning students. In 2015, Somaly received a special Governor’s Citation from the State of Connecticut. She passed away in 2016.
“As a classical Cambodian dancer trained at the Royal Palace from childhood, I continue to perform in America. I also teach Cambodian classical, folk, and social dance to Cambodian students in Connecticut and Rhode Island, because my whole family feels a commitment to preserving and passing on our culture. Many Cambodian children are born here now - we want them to understand themselves as Cambodian AND American. I serve as a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Master Teaching Artist, giving residencies in schools, performing with children, and working with teachers to incorporate my art into their curriculum.
One of my greatest loves is to create new dances based on Cambodian myths and folk tales performed in the classical court style, as I did for the Cambodian Artists Project at Jacob's Pillow and for the Merrimack Repertory Theater in Lowell, Massachusetts, where there is a very large Cambodian population. In 1994, I developed and choreographed a story called Strength of Spirit at Connecticut College. The story is, sadly, very appropriate to young Cambodians today in the U.S., as it deals with the problems of peer pressure and substance abuse. My dance presented culture and family as ways to strengthen a young girl's resistance to temptations and forge her own identity. It is hard to find the number of trained Cambodian dancers needed to perform the traditional dance stories or my new pieces. That is why I am eager to teach the next generation of dancers - including my two daughters - who can then become part of a New England Cambodian dance ensemble. I have worked with a videographer to record the essential elements of Cambodian dance: the kbach (postures) which are crucial to the correct portrayal of the central characters in the dance dramas. I can demonstrate these "building blocks" of choreography, then show how they are woven together through movement and expression to create the dance. This video provides young dancers with the best examples of form, so they can practice outside of class, and it documents the thousand-year-old memory of Cambodian dance.”
Biographical Note: Khandarith Hay came to the United States in the early 1980s after surviving the Khmer Rouge genocide. One of the few Cambodian classical singers in the U.S. at the time, Khandarith learned classical and popular song forms such as mohory from his brother-in-law Sam Ang Sam. Along with his wife, classical court dancer Somaly Hay, he was involved in building both both dance and accompanying music ensembles in Connecticut and Rhode Island through cultivation of community networks and young talent, along with instrumentalist Song Heng from Providence, Rhode Island. Khandarith taught Rhode Island resident Chamroeun Buth, who is a wedding singer, to learn the classical style of Cambodian music. Khandarith and a group of musicians including Somaly were recorded in the WNPR studio for CCHAP’s “Sounds Like Home” CD in 1998. Khandarith moved back to Cambodia in 2016.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this artist and this event.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
John Monteiro
2005 June 19
