The Khemera Dance Troupe (KDT) was founded in the spring of 2000 to preserve and share the delicate art of Cambodian classical dance in Utah. Since that time, the founders and students have worked hard to perfect this sacred art form; however, there is still much to learn. The troupe is presented with an opportunity to host a week-long workshop with a world-renowned dance master from Cambodia— Nak Kru Sophiline Cheam Shapiro—who is touring the United States this spring to offer workshops to dance groups across the United States.

We are reaching out to friends, family, as well as local business owners to see if you'd like to support us for this workshop; helping the troupe learn directly from a dance master from Cambodia.

The money raised will directly fund the workshop and KDT—which includes teaching fees, travel insurance, and airfare for Nak Kru Sophiline Cheam Shapiro as well as other fees associated with the workshop and the preservation of Cambodian classical dance.

NAK KRU SOPHILINE CHEAM SHAPIRO

At the age of eight, Nak Kru Sophiline Cheam Shapiro was forced to live in the countryside of Cambodia after her family was evacuated from the city by the Khmer Rouge. When the civil war of Cambodia ended, the National School of Fine Arts reopened where Nak Kru Sophiline was one of the first students to learn from dance masters who survived Pol Pot’s regime, who targeted artists. Being among the first generation of classically trained Cambodian dancers to graduate from the School of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, Nak Kru Sophiline devoted herself to master the complex and intricate gestures and movements of classical Cambodian dance.

Nak Kru Sophiline's choreography has been credited with infusing the classical form with new ideas. Her works include a classical Cambodian dance adaptation of Othello called Samrithechak (2000), The Glass Box (2002), and Seasons of Migration (2005). Her collaboration with composer Chinary Ung for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, was scheduled to premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall in November 2008. In 2013, Khmer Arts Ensemble premiered "A Bend in the River," a collaboration with sculptor Sopheap Pich and composer Him Sophy.

Nak Kru Sophiline Cheam Shapiro received numerous honors, including Asia 21, Creative Capital, Durfee, Guggenheim and Irvine Dance Fellowships, as well as the Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture. She was a member of the first generation to train at and graduate from Phnom Penh's School of Fine Arts after the fall of Pol Pot, and she has studied dance ethnology at the undergraduate and graduate level at UCLA's Department of World Arts & Cultures. She is a recipient of a 2009 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. She was also named a 2009 Fellow by United States Artists.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophiline_Cheam_Shapiro