NATYARASA | prumsodun

Photo: Nobuyuki Arai

“Now, if these dances do indeed serve as a mirror of the heavens,

there are finally gay angels, and they dance beautifully.”

- Hyperallergic

Perhaps by coincidence, perhaps by fate, Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA, Cambodia's first gay dance company, was founded in Ok's humble Phnom Penh living room in 2015. Giving young gay men access to a tradition commonly understood as a "female art form"—one that was nearly destroyed in the horrors of the Khmer Rouge genocide—Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA strategically, creatively, and effectively fought two histories of loss and erasure. One gesture, one dance, one artist at a time, the novel artistic company created a new face for Khmer youth and for Cambodia, redefining the borders of tradition while transforming the image of LGBTQ people all over the world.

Working at the forefront of cultural preservation, artistic innovation, and transformative social impact, Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA created jobs, alleviated poverty, filled gaps in education, nurtured safe spaces to form healthy relationships, built platforms for LGBTQ people to be seen and heard, and offered life-changing opportunities. Dancers, some of whom did not graduate from high school or never had a passport before, wowed audiences on major domestic and international stages such as the Currents Festival (Cambodia), Gay Games (Hong Kong), Godrej Leadership Forum (India), Camping Asia (Taiwan), CTM Festival (Germany), documenta (Germany), and Bangkok Theatre Festival - Asia Focus (Thailand). They challenged and inspired millions around the world through appearances on Bayon Television News, The Phnom Penh Post, Khaosod English, SBS Australia, rbbKultur, and Atlas Obscura among others.

Empowered through intensive cultivation of heart, mind, and body, special workshops and collaborations with international artists, and the building of place and community, Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA was a beacon of hope for many, dancing for those who could not dance, exemplifying courage, compassion, fearless love, and immense possibility. For many years, it was Cambodia's only non-government salaried dance company, providing a livable wage and performance commissions which dancers have used to determine their own lives, by paying for housing, supporting their families, pursuing higher education, and venturing into their own entrepreneurial endeavors. Indeed, like a mandala radiating out, like a flower blossoming from one center—from Prumsodun Ok to his students on—individual lives, families, communities, and societies have been touched and elevated. Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA was a truly world-changing, history-making company, turning cycles of love, knowledge, excellence, resilience, and leadership amidst the lasting residues of civil conflict and genocide.

As the dance artists matured, they stepped forth as teachers, choreographers, producers, and caretakers in their own rights, developing the necessary skills and capacities to steward the venerable tradition of Khmer classical dance in ways only they can. The Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA Home Studio became a place of teacher-to-student, senior-to-junior, and peer-to-peer learning (and back), working together across barriers of language, education, experience, and socio-economic circumstances in the service of a shared mission. Rounding out Ok's journey as a bridge-builder, his students from Cambodia and America came together for Amoghapasa: The Next Generation, a project-based learning initiative in which they were tasked to independently conceptualize, choreograph, and produce their own show. With Ok only providing verbal feedback related to the aesthetic, theoretical, cultural, social, and political implications of their original works, the dancers placed themselves in an amoghapasa or "unbreakable rope" of continuity in ways bespeaking their rich and varied experiences.

In December 2023, reflecting his transition off the stage as a performer—and due to a burgeoning desire to initiate broader, sweeping systemic transformation—Prumsodun Ok closed Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA. The dancers and he continue to rehearse, although now as an informal community only occasionally taking on special projects. Furthermore, Ok continues to serve as a mentor to his students: sharing residency opportunities, providing life and career guidance, and helping to build their networks. In an environment lacking proper culture strategy, management, and investment, the journey of Cambodia's first gay dance company was not always easy—but it has certainly been beautiful. Its powerful impact can perhaps be glimpsed by the words of Proeung Chhieng, a most senior and conservative dance master who served as advisor to the late Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, and to Cambodia's Ministry of Culture: "Cambodia has a long and rich history with many artistic traditions. Now, in the twenty-first century, we have you."

Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA open their performance at the Gay Games in Hong Kong with a vocal invocation to the ancestors, masters of the lands and waters, gods, and teacher spirits, and in a new classical dance invoking the earth goddess Thorani.

Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA dancers perform kbach bat yeak or the "demon movement fundamentals" during a sampeah kru (prayer to the teachers) ceremony. The ritual is performed at least once a year to pay respects to teachers living and deceased, and is a moment for students to mark their places within a lineage that is more than 1,000 years old. Offerings of food, flowers, incense, and candles are made—of which the most important is the offering of dance and music. This is a powerful example of intergenerational continuity with Sophiline Cheam Shapiro (blue shirt), her student Prumsodun Ok (all white, seated center), and his students all in one place—performing the core, foundation, and essential movements taught by Soth Sam On, star performer of yeak roles in the palace from the 1950s to 1970s, who was the primary teacher of Sophiline Cheam Shapiro.

Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA regularly collaborated with artists across disciplines and cultures, expanding the knowledge and creative possibilities of its young dancers and community. In this video taken during the same sampeah kru ceremony above, gagaku musicians Ota Yutaka, Kunimoto Yoshie, and Otonashi Fumiya play the melody Funan as an offering. It is important to note that Funan is the oldest Chinese name for Cambodia, and this melody reflects a little-known history in which Khmer musicians and dancers were offered to the ancient Chinese courts as a form of tribute (gagaku is a Japanese court music tradition with sources from China, Korea, Mongolia, and Southeast Asia). Thus, this performance in the Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA Home Studio represents the depth and power of connections across Asia, and the return of some pieces and forms of Cambodia after more than 1,000 years.

This video diary captures moments from a research trip to Koh Sdach, off the southwest coast of Cambodia, for A Deepest Blue. The dancers sing a gagaku melody, of which Ok has set Khmer lyrics upon. They sing: "Oh time, that time, the brilliant, bejeweled ocean, ever eminent, pristine, immense, full of blessings."

Made in collaboration with Ensemble KNM - Berlin, Drops & Seeds contemplated cycles pain, violence, and struggle in the cosmic scale and movement of the universe.

A radio review of Drops & Seeds at CTM Festival (German language).

Prumsodun Ok teaches the final love scene of Phleng Spean Chivit, a new classical dance drama adaptation of the Japanese folktale Akoya-hime. Following a heroine who falls in love with a tree spirit—who later asks her to fell his tree so that the community may build a bridge—the two-and-a-half hour drama explores humanity's relationship to nature, contemplating life as love, service, sacrifice, and offering.

A work-in-progress presentation of the first half of Phleng Spean Chivit in 2021, after only one month of rehearsals and development in between periods of lockdown restrictions.

Theater artist and Fukuoka Prize for Culture Laureate Satoh Makoto on the above work-in-progress presentation of Phleng Spean Chivit (in Japanese, followed by English translation).

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