We're here!

Posted by Gabri(ella) Spitz

I could probably ramble on for hours about the other days we were here, but everyone else has already done that multiple times, so I will talk about tuesday, at the Cambodian Living Arts organization. We arrived at this rickity, old, greying apartment building, and proceeded to walk (or maybe climb) up about three flights of terrifying, outdoor stairs, that only had a banister on one side. When we finally reached the correct floor, we went down a short, dark corridor until we reached two rooms. We split into two groups. (one group in one room, the other group in the other)

First, a group of children, ranging in age from eight to about fourteen, performed the "coconut dance" for us, where they used halves of cocunut shells as instruments to bang together in rhythm. It was delightfully awesome. Then they showed us their stretches, and I realized that there is a place for me in the world. You see, in classical Cambodian dance, it is considered beautiful if ones joints all bend in the wrong direction, so children actually practice to get their knees to bend the way mine do. Here's an example of a stretch. (try it!)
sit on your rear with your knees up.
mesh your fingers together and turn them out, so the palms of your hands face forward.
put your arms between your knees, and push your knees together so your elbows touch.
One of the boys we saw was able to make his elbows actually come together, which is unbelievable and painful.
After watching more dances, we continued on to the next room. Here, there were many, many students, and one elderly teacher and her daughter. The students performed one dance, and then two little boys and a thirteen year old girl performed what I could onlyh call a soap opera. The plot of this "classical Cambodian opera" involved a genie girl and her two suitors. Because of her indicisiveness, her true love was killed, and she had to marry the bad guy. Dr. Greenwald whispered to me that it sounded like General Hospital. Despite the melodrama, the children were magnificent actors.
We then did a question and answer session with the students. They asked what our names were, and then tried to repeat them. They seemed to have some issues with the name Michaelangelo. I wonder why. Then they asked our ages. When Mike said he was thirteen, all the girls started giggling and nudging eachother. When I said I was thirteen, the boys did the same. Dr. Greenwald asked if she could teach them some ballet, and they said sure, and that they wanted to teach us a Cambodian dance. It was fun to watch these Cambodian teenagers giggle and spin around in circles. Then, three other thirteen year olds came over to me and attempted to teach me the way one walks in Cambodian dance. This is where I learned that my flexibility is completely incompetant, as all three of them attempted to pull my fingers down to my wrist and discovered that it wouldnt move. We giggled a lot, and laughed over the fact that all three of them only came up to my shoulders.
After we left, I was told that one of the dancers, a pretty girl with a blue shirt, was a prostitute. She is twelve years old.
Many other amazing things happened later that day, but alas, my fingers are utterly exhausted. Fare well!