Khmer Dance

khmer dance

Video of a Cambodian dance troupe performing a blessing dance at the opening of the Lowell Water Festival, one of the largest Southeast Asian festivals in the US, organized jointly by the local Cambodian, Lao, Vietnamese and Thai communities.

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6 comments

  • It took about 4 minutes to load, even with a high-speed cable connection, and I almost switched away, and it finally started to play.
    Sound was a little low, so I had to turn the sound up higher to get it to work. But it’s interesting that you were able to capture enough of the dance without having to go to a panoramic lens. If you could combine a newscrawler underneath the video, it could comment on the costumes and the meaning of the dance. Glad to have a chance to see this technology at work, bringing out the ancient customs.

  • It’s a large file, because it’s more than three minutes long. I didn’t compress it as much as other videos I post because it really distorted the grace and detail of the dancers. Not sure why the sound was low – I was using separate microphone sound and it plays quite loud on my computer.

    I’ve tried using text commentary before but it can be really slow and cumbersome to produce. My goal was to get the video produced within an hour of returning back from the festival, and adding running commentary would have made that impossible. Besides, I’m not an expert on Khmer dance, so I didn’t have anything to say. I thought the dancing should speak for itself.

  • […] Independent nonprofit technology consultant Beth Kanter (blog: Cambodia4kids) has a podcast with Somaly K. Hay, the master Cambodian dance teacher. Beth has been chronicling in her vblog the water festival season in Maine and Massachusetts, USA – here, here and here. There is a short video which shows Cambodian dancers talking with their hands. […]

  • Would not load on my MAC. Invalid codec.

  • will this is cool i guess i’v been dacing sicne i was a little like around 2 i’v learn alot iam so into all the khmer aka khmai or what ever classical asain girl will just wanted to say post more ok buddy

  • nary

    Khmer dance is very beautiful. I wanted to learn since I was young. Cambodian traditional songs are very beautiful too.

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