A is for Apsara

I love dancing, learning new dances and trying new food. These are just a couple of reasons why I liked going to an Apsara dance performance and dinner.

Apsara dancing is a traditional Cambodian style of dance.  When apsara dancers are on the stage, they usually have a slight smile with their mouths closed.  Some amazing apsara dancers performed six dances for us while we ate a delicious dinner… Well I tried to eat, but the dancing was so different that it was hard to stay in my seat!

For each of the dances, there were musicians performing beautiful music with instruments such as an xylophone, a drum and best of all, their voices.

The first dance was called The Blessing dance. It was first performed in Cambodia to bless the kingdom and to ward off evil spirits. Today the dance is always performed first and is supposed to bring you peace and good health. There were three female dancers. The main dancer wore a yellow outfit, the two other dancers wore pink outfits and they all had big headpieces and silver challises filled with flower petals.  Near the end of the dance, they threw the flower petals into the audience.

This dance was slow and the dancers were very graceful and had to bend their fingers back the whole time!

The next dance was called Khmer Coconut Shells. It is a classical dance and shows that the Khmer people can use natural items to entertain themselves. The dance was upbeat and fun with the coconut shells. The costumes for the female dancers were yellow/light green shirts, green pants and coconut shells. The males wore white shirts, green pants and coconut shells.

The Khmer coconut dance

Coconut shells

Dance

Upbeat

The Golden Mermaid was the next dance. The story goes that queen Sita was captured and was being held prisoner. Hanuman, a monkey god, and his army tried to build a stone bridge so that they could rescue her.

Strangely, the stones from the bridge kept disappearing. Hanuman dove into the water to see where they had gone and found a golden mermaid.

She had been taking the stones as an entertaining activity and Hanuman fell in love with her.

Hanuman and the golden mermaid

The golden mermaid and Hanuman

The costume for Hanuman was a white monkey costume. The costume for the mermaid was an orange dress and headpiece. I liked this one because Hanuman was very lively and had a lot of energy.

The next dance was called the Cardamom picking dance. It was about the Poar nationality in the Pursat Province growing and harvesting trees, cardamoms and rice. It was an energetic dance with clapping and fun.

Picking the cardamom

Fun

Dancing

The females wore long, mainly black shirts with red at the bottoms, red shorts, a round hat and a head scarf.

The males wore blue shirts, red pants, yellow belts, head scarves and round hats.

This dance reminded me of the Agriculture work scene at the water puppet show we saw in Vietnam.

The next one was called the Fishing dance. In the beginning three ladies and three men are fishing. Four of them leave and one couple is left behind. The man tries hard to get the lady to like him but she keeps pushing him away.

Pushing him away…

Still pushing him away

He gives her a flower…

She gives it back

Eventually, she stops pushing him away and they fall in love.

In the end, the other fishermen and women come out to tease and congratulate them.

All of the girls wore metallic shirts, dark blue pants and used scoops to fish.

The men wore dark blue shirts, red pants and used noms to fish.

I liked this dance because it had a nice story. It reminded me of the fishing scene at the water puppet show in Vietnam.

The last dance was called the Apsara dance. This dance is a ballet which is performed during offering ceremonies. The main dancer wore a yellow and white dress and a headpiece.

The other dancers wore white shirts, and either green or red skirts, headpieces and carried golden roses.

This dance was slow and a perfect ending to our night.

Look at the head pieces

Balance

Standing on one foot

Wow!

The end

We had a great time at the dinner and apsara dance show. The dancing looks really hard, like ballet, because you need a lot of control and balance, especially when the dancers are standing on one foot! Well there is only one way to find out how difficult it is!  Stay tuned for more….

Mikhaila, me and the lead apsara dancer.

Close up!