LIKE បុប្ផាលោកី “FLOWER IN THIS WORLD”, SHE WILL BLOOM KHMER CLASSICAL DANCE, HOMELAND AND THE CAMBODIAN DIASPORA OF NORTHWEST AMERICA

Abstract

This thesis examines the diasporic voices of Khmer Classical dance practice. Khmer Classical dance is a sustained practice in diasporic communities of Northwest America that holds great importance to the community, especially during seasons of celebration. I recognize the value that the dancing community holds and wish for my study to serve as a platform to articulate the stories that lay unseen under these dancing bodies. More than words, the embodied practice of Khmer Classical dance narrates the powerful generational stories and motions of a shared homeland. Through the case of Khmer Classical Dance, I argue that the Khmer ethnic identity is decentralized from the state and religious sacrality. Instead, the globalization and dispersion of Cambodia during and after the tragedy of Khmer Rouge in 1975-1979 enabled the vernacular centralization of the Khmer ethnic identity on kinship, authenticity, and duality. In this thesis, I discuss how movement practice of Khmer Classical dance in Northwest America demonstrates a recentralization and equally salient expression of a Khmer Ethnic identity. To do so, I employ an interactionist perspective to conduct digital, collaborative ethnography through interviews, photo-elicitation, and class participant observations. Ultimately, this thesis is a homage to the hearty laughs shared across the four walls where dance practices are held, the calloused fingers of mothers as they sew together at the back of the room, the intimate sharing of sheepish glances between sisters and the tensely quiet but not silent molding of bodies.