Name: How Cambodia's 1st all-male, gay dance company is preserving tradition
Uploaded: 2019-10-05T18:05:27.000Z
Duration: 3 min 16 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: bringing ancient traditions alive in a new light.

Adverbs of manner

Artist Prumsodun Ok is taking a form of dance that dates back to performances solely for

His Khmer dance company is transforming that classical style by using an all-male and openly

gay group to showcase the art to the public.

He now gives his Brief But Spectacular take on this unique tradition.

PRUMSODUN OK, Dancer: So, when you look at Khmer classical dance, there are a lot of

And we have four primary hand gestures that we use.

That tree is going to grow and then it'll have leaves.

After it has leaves, it's going to have flowers.

And after it has flowers, it's going to have fruit.

That fruit is going to drop, and a new tree will grow.

And so in those four gestures are the cycle of life.

We use those four same gestures to illustrate sadness, love, anger, pain, joy, pride.

The art form was nearly destroyed in the 1970s, when the Khmer Rouge took over.

In a period of less than four years, 90 percent of Khmer dance artists lost their lives, during

a time in which an entire third of Cambodia's population perished through disease, overwork,

My teacher's teachers were instrumental in reviving the art form from the ashes of war

When I think about, what is my role to this tradition that was nearly lost, I have a responsibility

to offer my fullest self, my realities as a gay man, someone born and raised in the

diaspora, in and of and between many different worlds.

I didn't go to Cambodia with the intention of starting Cambodia's first gay dance company.

Then I got a fellowship to work with all young male gay dancers.

And when I got to Cambodia, my friends, who are the leading dance artists in Cambodia,

And I would say, no, because everywhere I looked around me, I saw so much sadness.

After a month-and-a-half of training these young men, I sat down and I watched them.

And I said, oh, my God, they look like a real company.

And, oh, my God, Cambodia's first gay dance company just formed in my living room.

To call the company, like, a gay dance company is a very brave and very forward thing.

Before I auditioned the dancers, I told them: I need brave people.

You are going to go on stage and you are going to represent a community that doesn't have

My name is Prumsodun Ok, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on honoring your traditions.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And you can find additional Brief But Spectacular episodes on our Web

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How Cambodia's 1st all-male, gay dance company is preserving tradition

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ancient

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