We then headed to our activity at Epic Arts, an NGO that uses the arts to teach and support people with disabilities. The dance workshop, which was conducted in Khmer, English, and sign language, included on five activities and two games. We started off with a diamond dance, where four people stand in a diamond shape and worked together to choreograph a short dance. The dancer in the front of the diamond led the others for several moves before turning it to the next dancer. The second dance we learned was the technical dance. Everyone was using counts to understand the pace of the movement. Next, we did weight poses, where two partners balanced each other at light, middle, and heavy levels. Our fourth dance was a "picture" dance. In groups of four, we created short dances that ended in a pose for a picture. Finally, we learned a traditional Khmer slow dance, with hand and leg movement to symbolize the circle of life through a progression from a young leaf to a flower. After several hours of practice, we performed our dances in our 4-person groups. We all really enjoyed trying something new and using our imaginations to create all the dances!
After the workshop, we had a delicious lunch at the Epic Arts Cafe. Conner and Casey enjoyed their brownie shake, absent the sugar crash.
Finally, we took our bus back to Phnom Penh. Our hotel, the Frangipani has a rooftop lounge with beautiful views of the river and the city. We had a dinner at the Banana Tree restaurant, where we enjoyed a live performance of the Khmer dance we had learned earlier in the day. For our final event of the day, we watched part of a documentary about Cambodia's performing arts before the Khmer Rouge.
We look forward to another amazing day today!
Some of Ryan's photos below:
