• Académie vivante session 2
  • TP directed by Vuth Lyno
  • Seminar: The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club
  • Workshop - 3D DIY modelling and artistic creation
  • Publication Académie vivante 2

    • Seminar: The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club

    Automn 2016, Wednesdays night from 6pm to 8pm

    "The Apsara Trans-dis­ci­plinary Research Club" wishes to provide young researchers, artists and any other inter­ested person, with the oppor­tu­nity to dis­cover new method­olo­gies and approaches of work and research. Laying on the his­tory of the for­ma­tion of the Apsara dance, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research’s aim is to pro­pose a trans-dis­ci­plinary sem­inar, bringing sci­en­tific dis­ci­plines, human­i­ties, art his­tory and con­tem­po­rary art together, thus allowing to cross per­spec­tives so as to exper­i­ment with alter­na­tive forms of cre­ation and knowl­edge.

    "The Apsara Trans-dis­ci­plinary Research Club" offers a reflexive approach by encour­aging each of the par­tic­i­pants to call into ques­tion the modal­i­ties of his or her own field of research, through the prism of the Apsara dance and its his­tory.

    About the Apsara Dance
    The Apsara Dance is among the most famous one in Cambodia. It has been named after an epony­mous myth­ical per­sona, the celes­tial Apsara, a fem­i­nine entity which orig­i­nated from Hinduism. The dance Apsara is often per­ceived as deeply rooted in Cambodian cul­ture. Yet, the Apsara dance hap­pens to be a modern cre­ation resulting from the fusion of dif­ferent dances that had stemmed from dif­ferent places in South-East Asia, and notably Thailand. What’s more, the ges­tures of the dancers have been bor­rowed from the low-reliefs carving that adorn the tem­ples in Angkor. The cur­rent ver­sion of the chore­og­raphy of the Apsara dance has been invented in 1963, for Marcel Camus long fea­ture L’oiseau de Paradis (Bird of Paradise) in which the princess Bophadevi dances Apsara. Three years later, Prince Noronum Sihanouk directed Aspara, the film which val­i­dated the dance as a national symbol of Cambodia.
    Despite the polit­ical dis­rup­tion that Cambodia had known, the Apsara dance is still in use today. One of its many vari­a­tions may also be seen per­formed at one of Phnom Penh drag-queens Club, ‘The Classic Night’.

    PROGRAM

    PAST EVENTS

    Wednesday September 21, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.


    With Vera Mey, co-curator of the exhi­bi­tion Anywhere But Here.

    Shu Tit Sing, photograph taken during his 1963 trip to Angkor, bas-reliefs with Apsaras. All rights reserved.

    The first edi­tion of the Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club will look at the cir­cu­la­tion of the figure of the Apsara and how she is cir­cu­lated in wider parts of Southeast Asia and through Cambodia dias­pora. The dis­cus­sion will start with the Ten Men Group oper­a­tive between the 1960s - 1970s and how she appeared within cer­tain artists works from the group. The dis­cus­sion will then pro­gress to the pres­ence of the Apsara in film clips and tourist adver­tising and look at the ways she is in cir­cu­la­tion today.

    Vera Mey (born in 1987 in Wellington, New Zealand) is an inde­pen­dent curator based in London. She was part of the founding team of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore led by Ute Meta Bauer from 2013. For 2015-2016 she is guest curator at Sa Sa Bassac and Bétobsalon –Center for Art adn Research, grantee of SOAS, University of London and Getty Foundation as part of Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art.

    Session 1 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Vera Mey, in parallel to the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 1 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Vera Mey, in parallel to the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 1 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Vera Mey, in parallel to the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.

    Wednesday September 28, from 6 p.m. to 8p.m.


    With Suppya Nut, Lecturer on the South-East Asia History at the Paris-Diderot University. She will address the his­tory and for­ma­tion of the Apsara dance.

    Shu Tit Sing, photograph taken during his 1963 trip to Angkor, bas-reliefs with Apsaras. All rights reserved.

    Suppya Hélène Nut is a spe­cialist of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia. She works in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the princess Norodom Buppha Devi, master of dance and chore­og­raphy for the troupe of the Royal Ballet. She has been at the direc­tion of the Khmer Dance Project on the behalf of the public library of New-York, for which she has realised 61 videos on dance in Cambodia (inter­views of artists, cap­tures of dances rep­re­sen­ta­tion). She teaches the Cambodian lit­er­a­ture and the per­forming arts of South-East Asia at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations while pur­suing her research on the Royal Ballet and gender in Cambodia.

    Session 2 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Suppya Hélène Nut , in the framework of the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 2 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Suppya Hélène Nut , in the framework of the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 2 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Suppya Hélène Nut, in the framework of the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.

    Wednesday October 5, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.


    With Jean-Pierre Couty, asso­ciate pro­fessor at Paris-Diderot University, Cochin Institute.

    Cancerous cells, all rights reserved.

    Jean-Pierre Couty is immu­nol­o­gist, spe­cialised in the study of the liver cancer. He is inter­ested in deci­phering the dia­logue which lays at the basis of the rela­tion between cancerous cells and those of the immune system. As a source of inspi­ra­tion, part of his work is organ­ised in way which he assumes draws sim­i­lar­i­ties with street the­atre, which hence could be com­pared to the mys­te­ri­ous­ness of the Apsara dance. Jean-Pierre Couty simply pro­poses that the move­ment and defor­ma­tion of cells (be they immune, vas­cular or cancerous) be fur­ther explored through the devel­op­ment of cancer and its evo­lu­tion through time.

    Session 3 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Jean-Pierre Couty, in the framework of the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 3 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Jean-Pierre Couty, in the framework of the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 3 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Jean-Pierre Couty, in the framework of the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.

    Wednesday October 12, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m


    With Hélène Marquié, Lecturer at the centre for Feminine studies, Paris VIII, will talk about the inter­sec­tion between gender and dance.

    Anonymous, Louis XIV dressed as Apollo in the Ballet of the Night, 1653, detail. All rights reserved.

    During this talk, Hélène Marquié will pre­sent a part of her research local­ized at the inter­sec­­tion between dance studies and gender studies. At first she will address the way in which the per­spec­­tive of the gender enlighten the anthro­pology of dance, what it allows us to under­­s­tand about the his­­tory of the ballet in France, while estab­lishing par­al­lels or diver­­gences with the khmer ballet. Finally she will focus on the dif­ferent ques­­tions raised by the rep­re­sen­­ta­­tions of gender and of its stere­o­­types.

    Hélène Marquié is lec­turer in gender studies at the Paris 8 University. She is a member of the LEGS (Laboratoire d’études de genre et de sex­u­alité / Laboratory for the studies of gender and sex­u­ality). She is also an asso­ciate pro­fessor in biology and geology. Dancer and chore­og­ra­pher of con­tem­po­rary dance, her research is local­ized at the crossing between dance studies and gender studies: she addresses the his­tory con­struc­tion and rep­re­sen­ta­tion of gender within the his­tory of dance. She has recently pub­lished a book enti­tled Non, la danse n’est pas un truc de fille – Essai sur le genre en danse (or No, dance is not some girls’ stuff – Essay on gender within the field of dance, Toulouse, Éditions de l’Attribut, 2016 ).She is a member the Policy, of the Scientific and of the Management Boards of the Emilie du Châtelet Institute. For many years she has been par­tic­i­pating in the research work­shop enti­tled “Dance as an anthro­po­log­ical object”, orga­nized by CNRS/Paris 1/EPHE/Université Blaise Pascal-Clermont-Ferrand 2 / Université de Nanterre Paris Ouest.

    Session 4 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Hélène Marquié, in the framework of the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 4 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Hélène Marquié, in the framework of the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 4 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Hélène Marquié, in the framework of the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.

    Wednesday October 19, from 6 p.m. to 8p.m.


    Seminar: The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club, ses­sion 5 with the Ballet Classique Khmer (BCK) of Paris.

    Postcard from Cambodia, representing Apsara dancers. All rights reserved.

    The asso­ci­a­tion le Ballet Classique Khmer (BCK), or ‘Classical Khmer Ballet’ of Paris aims at pre­serving, trans­mit­ting, and making the mil­len­nial art of clas­sical Cambodian dance known.
    Funded in 1976 by SAR, the Princess Vacheahra Norodom and by dancers from the Royal Ballet from Phnom Penh, the asso­ci­a­tion, thanks to the many per­for­mances made across France and the world, par­tic­i­pated in the recog­ni­tion of this art, which has been reg­is­tered as part of the global imma­te­rial her­itage by the UNESCO. The teaching of the dance is pro­vided by mas­ters of renown, on a weekly basis.
    The ballet is com­posed of Cambodian, French with Cambodian ori­gins or French men and women of all ages. Several chil­dren of the first gen­er­a­tion of Cambodian refugees who sought shelter in France found, through this asso­ci­a­tion, a way to con­nect with their cul­tural roots.

    Session 5 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with the Ballet Classique Khmer (BCK), in parallel to the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 5 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with the Ballet Classique Khmer (BCK), in parallel to the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 5 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with the Ballet Classique Khmer (BCK), in parallel to the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Wednesday October 26, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.


    With Michael Falser, his­to­rian of archi­tec­ture at the Heidelberg University : "Reenacting the Royal Khmer Ballet : 1890-2015"

    Edge of the pit of the temples of Angkor Vat in the region of Siem Reap, © Les Archives de la Planète, autochrome 1918-1921.

    It is a com­­mon­­place that cul­­tural her­itage is not only a highly con­tested con­­cept of
    modern times, full of nation­al­istic under­­tones, cul­­tural stere­o­­types and essen­­tialist
    topoi such as past grandeur and enduring cul­­tural purity. Cultural her­itage has also
    become the easiest and most prof­itable prey for today’s global tourism industry. These
    obser­­va­­tions apply with par­tic­u­larly dra­­matic con­se­quences to young emerging,
    post­­colo­­nial nation states with a rich reper­­toire of built (tan­gible) and per­­formed
    (intan­gible) cul­­ture – espe­­cially if ele­­ments of this reper­­toire are branded ‘UNESCO
    World Heritage’ without con­sid­ering their con­tested for­­ma­­tion his­­to­ries. Few other iconic
    her­itage sites are more instruc­­tive in show­­casing these obser­­va­­tions than the temple
    site of Angkor, by charting the tran­s­cul­­tural tra­­jec­­to­ries of Cambodia’s her­itage
    con­struc­­tion through the pro­cesses of French colo­­nial rein­ven­­tion, post­­colo­­nial/nation­alist
    essen­­tial­i­sa­­tion, and global com­­mod­­i­­fi­­ca­­tion. This pre­sen­­ta­­tion focuses on the ‘Royal
    Khmer Ballet’ as cul­­tural per­­for­­mance and her­itage re-enac­t­­ment in com­bi­­na­­tion with
    the twelfth-cen­­tury temple of Angkor Wat as archi­tec­­tural stage.

    Michael Falser is an Austrian archi­­tect and art his­­to­rian. Currently he his pro­­ject leader at the Chair of Global Art History within the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context. The Dynamics of Transculturality" at Heidelberg University. With his long-standing research in the tran­s­cul­­tural her­itage for­­ma­­tion of Angkor between the French-colo­­nial period, inde­pen­­dent Cambodia and today’s UNESCO World Heritage regime, he pub­­lished on the art and archi­tec­­tural his­­tory and cul­­tural her­itage for­­ma­­tions in a global con­­text. His mono­­graph "Angkor Wat. From Jungle Find to Global Icon. A Transcultural History of Heritage" will be pub­­lished with DeGruyter in 2017.

    Saturday November 5, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.


    For this con­cluding ses­sion of the sem­inar “The Apsara Transdisciplinary research Club”, we will receive Julie Burbage, clin­ical psy­chol­o­gist, who will address the theme of the dance, or rather of body in motions as a sup­port for ther­a­peu­tical prac­tices. Dancers from the Ballet Classique Khmer (BCK asso­ci­a­tion will join her so as to ini­tiate the par­tic­i­pants to the com­plex and diverse ges­tures of the Apsara dance.

    "Love Duet", all rights reserved.

    From one body to another. Danced move­ment, or an occa­sion of trans­for­ma­tion.
    In this pre­sen­ta­tion, we will work with the obser­va­tions resulting from a work­shop imple­mented in a ser­vice for adult psy­chi­atry, and par­tic­u­larly addressing psy­chotic patients. Then we will ini­tiate a reflec­tion on the ways danced move­ments can either provide an oppor­tu­nity to create a new rela­tion to the body for cer­tain patients, or, for others, it can allow them to draw their own cor­poral out­lines when those are hardly draft through exper­i­menting with sen­sa­tions. The psy­cho­an­a­lyt­ical approach to the body will allow us to enlighten some of the sen­so­rial et psy­chic issues which are at core of these trans­for­ma­tions.

    Julie Burbarge is a clin­ical psy­chol­o­gist at the Nursing Home of Epinay and at the accom­mo­da­tion and social reha­bil­i­ta­tion center of the Poterne des Peupliers.
    Holder of a jazz dance chore­og­raphy cer­tifi­cate, she fre­quently offers ther­a­peu­tical work­shops based on danced move­ments.
    Currently pur­suing a PhD at the Paris VII University, her research focuses on the impli­ca­tion of soma­tism upon delirium within the frame of psy­chosis.

    The asso­­ci­a­­tion Le Ballet Classique Khmer (BCK), or ‘Classical Khmer Ballet’ of Paris aims at pre­serving, tran­s­mit­ting, and making the mil­len­­nial art of clas­sical Cambodian dance known.
    Funded in 1976 by SAR, the Princess Vacheahra Norodom and by dancers from the Royal Ballet from Phnom Penh, the asso­­ci­a­­tion, thanks to the many per­­for­­mances made across France and the world, par­tic­i­­pated in the recog­ni­­tion of this art, which has been reg­is­tered as part of the global imma­te­rial her­itage by the UNESCO. The teaching of the dance is pro­­vided by mas­ters of renown, on a weekly basis.
    The ballet is com­­posed of Cambodian, French with Cambodian ori­­gins or French men and women of all ages. Several chil­­dren of the first gen­er­a­­tion of Cambodian refugees who sought shelter in France found, through this asso­­ci­a­­tion, a way to con­nect with their cul­­tural roots.

    Session 7 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Julie Burbage and the Ballet Classique Khmer (BCK), in parallel to the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 7 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Julie Burbage and the Ballet Classique Khmer (BCK), in parallel to the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    Session 7 of the seminar "The Apsara Transdisciplinary Research Club" with Julie Burbage and the Ballet Classique Khmer (BCK), in parallel to the exhibition Anywhere But Here, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, 2016.


    The Académie vivante is supported by the Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso.

    • Initiation à la danse Apsara avec le Ballet Classique Khmer à Bétonsalon - Centre d’art et de recherche