The genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1970s wiped out nearly all of Cambodia’s artists, and the survivors have been working to rebuild the nation’s verdant cultural traditions ever since. The vastly ambitious production “The Rebirth of Apsara,” which premieres Thursday at Sonoma State’s Green Music Center and comes to Z Space Sunday, brings together leading artists from Cambodia and the far-flung diaspora, using narratives inspired by Hindu and Buddhist cosmology.
“What’s really wonderful about it is that we’re starting from our own mythology and departing from it, taking ownership of our stories and creating new mythology,” said Cambodian-American writer and actor Kalean Ung, who wrote the text for the evening-length dance/theatre production.
Presented by New Performance Traditions and the Paul Dresher Ensemble, “The Rebirth of Apsara” was created and choreographed by choreographer Charya Burt, who trained with surviving dance masters at Phnom Penh’s Royal University of Fine Arts (where she went on to serve on the dance faculty from 1989-1992). After several years touring internationally with Cambodia’s Royal Dance Troupe, Burt moved to the U.S. in 1993 and has performed numerous times at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival.
Rather than trying to recreate classical forms, “The Rebirth of Apsara” is a canny blend of tradition and innovation with a score commissioned from Cambodian-born composer Chinary Ung, who moved to the U.S. in 1964 to study music at the Manhattan School of Music and composition at Columbia University. He designed the score for a singular ensemble featuring his wife, violist Susan Ung, traditional Vietnamese multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Võ, Joel Davel on the electronic Marimba Lumina, and Paul Dresher on Hurdy Grande, a long string instrument of his own invention.
In many ways, the titular Apsaras — fabled female celestial beings in Hindu and Buddhist mythology who dance to entertain gods and kings — take on the role of muses, spurring the creative regeneration embodied within the performance. In providing direction for the text by Kalean Ung (the daughter of Chinary and Susan Ung), Burt asked her to devise stories that encompass the entire Cambodian experience, “starting from the birth of Apsara,” she said, “going into the stories of the Khmer Rouge. In act two, we follow the stories of three master artists, and in act three, we’re talking about the Cambodian diaspora, and what myths do we want to create now.”
“As a Cambodian artist, I wanted to elevate this next generation,” she continued. “Ninety percent all artists were killed in the genocide. It’s a miracle we are here today. That’s the big picture, putting all of the pieces back that Charya brought into his really beautiful, epic story.”
The cast of dancers features U.S. based artists Charya Burt, Ryan Boun, Mea Lath, and Virginia Prak, and dancers from Cambodia, including Narim Nam, Rady Nget, and Chanmoly Vuth. Acclaimed Cambodian designer Vannary San created the costumes, and Los Angeles-based Taiwanese multimedia artist Hsuan-Kuang Heish handled projection, with lighting by ODC Dance’s longtime lighting designer David Robertson.
Kalean Ung, who teaches at the CalArts School of Theater, is no stranger to weaving together Cambodia’s past and present. She created a one-woman show, “Letters From Home,” based on her father’s decade-long campaign to rescue family members from refugee camps after the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975.
In creating the text for “The Rebirth of Apsara,” she was given the tricky task of leading the audience through history and dramatic action without being didactic. “They wanted to find a way to have me perform in the show and also be the narrative glue,” she said. “Because I did my solo show, I have some experience with the dance of how to give information that grounds the audience, and how to embody different characters. I really feel like I’m an Apsara doula, helping her way her back to this rebirth.”
Jazz at Medicine for Nightmares
Saturday afternoon at Medicine For Nightmares, the San Francisco Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble plays its first concert of the year, a free event marking the passing of the torch to new directors Alex Farrell and Daniel Riera (who are alumni of the group). Founded in 2001 by flutist/percussionist John Calloway and the power couple Sylvia Ramirez and Arturo Riera, the Mission-based LJYE has nurtured hundreds of young musicians over the years, providing free musical education to students throughout the Bay Area. Not every player has pro musical ambitions, but the group boasts numerous graduates who’ve gone on impressive careers, including including /vocalist Natalie Cressman and flutist/vocalist Elena Pinderhughes.
Bob Dylan footage at the Roxie
Over at the Roxie, Tuesday night offers a deep dive into Bob Dylan’s filmography with a dozen short film and video clips, featuring Dylan on stage and in the studio over the course of half a century. The program includes never-before-seen 1966 footage of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” from the archives of the Bob Dylan Center, which opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in May 2022. Following the screening, San Francisco icon Chuck Prophet, who has widely performed music from Dylan and The Band’s “Basement Tapes,” joins Steven Jenkins, the director of the Dylan Center, in conversation.
