It would be natural to assume that you had little in common with the divine beings of Sophiline Cheam Shapiro’s acclaimed dance “Seasons of Migration” performed Friday in the CFA Theater. Your footsteps aren’t accented with percussion, you aren’t gilded in golden shimmer, and you aren’t straight out of Cambodian mythology. However, most people will find that if they remember those first weeks as a Wesleyan frosh, the experience of culture shock is not unlike what Shapiro’s divinities encounter in this dazzling portrayal of encountering foreign surroundings.
The characters of “Seasons of Migration” leave their celestial home and come to dwell among human beings on earth. Their reactions are separated into four sections: Euphoria, Rejection, Adjustment, and Equilibrium. Expressing these four stages through the enchantingly stylized Cambodian classical dance form, the dancers possessed a regal manner that was emphasized with the exaggerated movements and gestures typical in Cambodian dance. As Neang Neak, a female serpent of Cambodian myth, becomes self-conscious about her tail, she makes futile attempts to separate it from herself. After failing, Neang Neak realizes that her tail is an indelible part of her and will always make her different.
Like Neang Neak, choreographer Shapiro experienced the confusion and resentment that comes with adapting and assimilating. Though she lives in California and is a United States citizen, Shapiro grew up in Cambodia and experienced life under the Khmer Rouge government. Lasting from the 1970s into the late 1990s, the Khmer Rouge regime used violence and brutality to create one of the most devastating genocides in history. Among those who were killed during the “Reign of Terror” were 80-90% of professional Cambodian artists.
Currently, Cambodian artists are making efforts to restore and revive their rich cultural traditions through education and example. Shapiro was part of the first generation to graduate from the Royal University of Fine Arts located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge regime collapsed.
Though Shapiro’s work as a choreographer and director is laden with classical tradition, it is not old school by any means. In fact, her fusion of past and present dance vocabulary has made her an innovator among Cambodian artists. In addition to “Seasons of Migration”, the Royal University of Fine Arts dancers also performed the short dance drama “Ream Eyso and Moni Mekhala.” One of the oldest dances in the repertory and a well-known story of the genesis of thunder and lightning, this dance demonstrates the mythological aspect of Cambodian dance more conventionally than “Seasons of Migration.”
“Seasons of Migration is an attempt to address contemporary personal issues, everyday issues, turned into myth,” Shapiro explained during the pre-show talk Friday in the Zilkha Gallery.
The sheer beauty of the storytelling through the refined movements of the dancers evoked the issues Shapiro mentioned. Each graceful hand movement – gestures that symbolized tree, leaf, flower, and fruit – may not have reached each audience member as a representation of an actual object, but the effect was to create an otherworldly, almost eerie depiction of very human emotions as experienced through heavenly creatures. Audience members were struck by the unfamiliar history and visually appealing style of the dance.
“It’s fulfilling the image I have of it,” said Ann Sabin, a Middletown resident. “You see all these images from National Geographic, you know…it’s very beautiful.”
“This is our first experience with Cambodian dance,” said Kathy Cobb of Old Saybrook. “What brought us here was the title. The pre-show lecture was helpful to know the importance of the universe, the gods, the movements of the hand.”
The Center for the Arts had been readying itself for the show for quite some time. The Royal University of Fine Arts visited in 2001 and their decision to perform at Wesleyan while on their “Seasons of Migration” tour was exciting and demanding for those involved in its development.
“It was nearly two years in the planning,” said Barbara Ally, the Center for the Arts Associate Director for Programming and Events. “There is always a great deal of pre-planning that needs to be done from dealing with fees, technical needs [and] requirements, schedules, to needs of the artists, and promotion.”
Though the event, one of the Center for the Arts’ biggest for the spring 2005 season, went quite smoothly for such a big affair, there were potential problems.
“One element of the planning that we could not control was the visa process,” Ally said. “That can be an issue as the tour was dependent on all being granted visas. Thankfully all the dancers and musicians were granted visas in February and we could be assured that the tour would happen.”
“In the months leading up to Seasons of Migration, the Center for the Arts worked with Wesleyan Academic departments and volunteers to let people know about this special event,” said Center for the Arts Press and Marketing Coordinator Lex Leifheit. “We knew there would be a lot going on at Wesleyan that weekend , since this event happened during WesFest, and were happy that so many Wesleyan students attended the performance and the pre-show talk.”
“Seasons of Migration” epitomized the type of event that succeeds as a result of artist talent, ample promotion and anticipation, and perfect timing. The audience was filled with Wesleyan students, their prefrosh, and a broad range of members of the surrounding community. Despite the relative obscurity of the thirty five dancers’ and musicians’ work among the public, the exposure to a revived tradition was enough to provoke curiosity and fascination in those who were so lucky to experience it.
“I was really enchanted by the performance,” said Christy Wurmstedt ’07. “The dancers’ sense of balance and their intricate yet sudden movements pulsated to the beautiful music. I was impressed by the dancers’ form as a whole and as individuals.”
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