AsiaLIFE

Phnom Penh doesn’t yet have a full-time dance school. But if you want to put on your red shoes and dance, there is a wealth of choice. From all kinds of western ballroom dance to contemporary dance and salsa, via street jazz and hip hop – take your pick. Words by Johan Smits.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Having started to dance at the age of six, the now 26-year-old Laura Joy teaches an adult jazz class twice a week alongside a weekly neo-classical/contemporary dance class. Both are at the Himawari Hotel. To her, it’s all about fun. Most of her students joined simply to try something new or to increase their energy levels. Some of them are ex-dancers themselves.

“Contemporary dance is softer and comes from classical ballet, leaving more room for self-expression,” Laura explains. Jazz, on the other hand, is more regimented and uniform, combining MTV with hip hop. It’s a technical, modern dance. The Australian is now looking to start a tap dance class and a children’s class combining tap, ballet and jazz. She hopes this will allow kids to interact with each other in a fun environment.

Locking and Popping

Emilia from France also started dancing when she was a child – ballet, jazz and modern jazz. She turned to hip hop when a teenager. Over the past six years she has toured Paris, London and Berlin with dance companies. She ended up in Cambodia nine months ago. “My first specialty is ‘Locking’,” she says, referring to a U.S. west coast dance style with emphasis on funk and disco. Her second specialty is hip hop new style, which strongly influences her street jazz classes at The Place, but other styles such as ‘Popping’ also come into play.

Her students are usually very mixed, both male and female, foreigners and locals, young and not so young. “I have people I wouldn’t expect in a hip hop class,” she says, “but they just want to try – it’s good fun!”

Etha also teaches at The Place. With a background in acrobatic gymnastics, the Indonesian teaches what she calls “fun hip hop” to an eclectic group of students. “There are less rules than with street hip hop,” she explains. “It’s less technical and there’s a lot of freedom in how you want to move your body,” she explains. Etha is currently looking for up to fifteen girls to train and form a professional hip hop group with the aim of performing for audiences.

Strictly Ballroom

“Introducing ballroom dancing to local Cambodians will still take a long time,” says Cambodian-French Nomya. He and his wife Therese teach all kinds of ballroom dances including cha cha, rumba, samba, paso doble, jive, tango, waltz, quick step and rock ‘n roll. That’s a handful. “Our students are mainly expats and some Cambodians who have lived abroad,” explain the retired couple. Like the other classes in town, most of their students join just to enjoy themselves. That’s also the couple’s motivation. All proceeds go directly towards Cambodia’s Kid’s, an educational project they founded in 2006 that helps some 1,500 kids from the forestry region in Kratie.

Their students usually come in couples. “When a single person wants to join we put them on a waiting list until we find a partner for them,” says Therese. The good news for men who want to join is that all those currently on the waiting list are women.

Nico and Lydia from Meta House too have introduced some ballroom dancing. They recently organised a tango workshop, the third of its kind following waltz and cha cha. They noticed a strong interest from Cambodians in the latest tango class. “This could be an interesting part of western culture for them,” explains Nico. Meta House is planning similar ones for in the future – watch this space.

Salsa classes prove to be very popular with Cambodians, although classes come and go. The only regular class we found in Phnom Penh is taught by the Colombian Javier who teaches every Monday for free at Two Fish. Initially, he started off with people working for the UNDP but now his class is 30 to 35 dancers strong, from all walks of life. “The majority are Cambodian woman who are interested in dancing and just want to try something new,” Javier explains. They also seem to be the most loyal – expats tend to come more sporadically.

Blending Dance with Martial Arts

A group of eight young men and women are moving rhythmically to Brazilian music blasting out of a portable stereo. Their moves, often in pairs, include hands touching the ground, sometimes looking as if they are about to launch themselves into break-dancing.

“When you are learning capoeira, you not only learn the body movements, but also how to sing and play the instruments,” explains Michel, one of the three current teachers of ‘Capoeira Kampuchea’. Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian art form blending dance with martial arts and sometimes acrobatics. The most basic movement in capoeira is called the Ginga. It is a dance movement.

Angeline, one of the students as well as a contemporary dancer, finds that with capoeira she flows with the music. “Capoeira has already helped with my dancing,” she says, “it’s focused and disciplined.” A small majority of the group are women. “Men maybe think that you have to be really flexible but that’s not true,” says Michel. “The flexibility comes during practice.”

Towards the end of the class the volume of the music is turned up and some students start playing traditional Brazilian instruments. Others move around in pairs, their dancing concealing the martial moves that are at the origin of this exciting Afro-Brazilian art.

Ballroom: Nomya & Therese, 700 E2 Kampuchea Krom, Tel: 011 893 200, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , www.cambodiakids.fr. US$35 per 5 successive lessons over 5 weeks.

Adult Jazz, Contemporary: ‘Dance workshop Cambodia’ with Laura Joy. Monday 7.30-8.30pm and Thursday 5.30-6.30pm (jazz), Wednesday 7.30-8.30pm (contemporary), at Himawari Gym. US$5/class. Tel: 012 634 008, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52049329375&ref=mf

Street Jazz: Emilia at The Place, every Thursday 7-8pm. Free for members, US$15/class for non-members. Tel. 023 999 799

Hip Hop: Etha at The Place, every Friday at 7pm. Free for members, US$15/class for non-members. Tel. 023 999 799

Salsa: Javier at Two Fish, every Monday at 6.30-7.30pm, free of charge. Tel. 012 998 508.

Capoeira: ‘Capoeira Kampuchea’, Monday and Thursday 6.30-8pm at Tchou Tchou pre-school, under US$15/month, first lesson free. Tel. 012 458 167. Allessandro & Naomi at The Place, Wednesday 7.45-8.30pm, Free for members, US$15/class for non-members. Tel. 023 999 799.