14TH AUGUST 2019 ~ As planned, I went back to the museum before 7.00 p.m. for the cultural performance presented by Cambodian Living Arts. The venue was at the Cambodia National Museum, which was actually near my hotel.
I bought the cheapest ticket which cost me USD15 and that put me at the back row seats. However, the view was still good from where I was sitting.
There was live music and singing accompanying all the dance numbers. The dancers were professional and they were all trained by this academy which was putting an effort to preserve the Khmer culture and arts.
I enjoyed myself tremendously throughout the performance. It was worth the expensive ticket paid for and I would recommend you to go and catch this show when you are in Phnom Penh.
I am yet to upload a few videos I recorded during the show on my Youtube channel.
5th December 2016 ~ I was excited to find out I could watch a traditional dance performance during my stay in Luang Prabang while buying the tickets to the museum. The Royal Theatre Building is in the same compound with the National Museum and the Royal Temple. The cheapest ticket costs you 100 000 Kip and you could pay more to get better seats.
If you have watched dance performances in other countries like Thailand or Indonesia, the plot to the dance theatre is basically the same. The show is called Phralak Phralam - the national epic of Lao people. This is because the story is based on the old book of Ramayana. So there would be the same characters acting on stage especially the White Monkey. We even have the local version of Ramayana called "Hikayat Sri Rama" from which many traditional shows like "Mak Yong" and "Wayang Kulit" (shadow puppets) are based on.
The dance steps and the music beat were actually quite slow and repetitive, I had a feeling I could easily dance like those people. At times, thing might get a bit monotonous and they seemed to be dancing in repeated loops. However, I really enjoyed the live traditional dance and live singing. The singers had very good vocals.
And here is the front facade of the Royal Theatre Building.
the exhibits at the lobby
when your travel companions decided to visit the night market, instead of watching a dance performance, then selfie it was.
(When I was there) There were three performances staged on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The door was opened at 7:00 p.m. and the whole thing took about 1 ½ hours. If you are a culture vulture, then this should be something that you should not miss.
I will post videos uploaded on Youtube of the sections recorded during the dance theatre later. Or you can search for my channel on Youtube using the same name: Cikgu Zainal.
"Tarian Topeng" or Mask Dance is a popular traditional dances in Indonesia. One of the most difficult tasks for the dancers to do was to bite the masks from the inside so as to make sure the masks would stick to their faces throughout the performance.
Other than angklung performance, the audience were also presented with folk dances of Indonesia.
From the Chinese Village section of the Cambodian Cultural Village, we then walked to the next station called Kola Village. It was an open air theatre and I guess there would be no performance if it rains. Again, the seats were already occupied so we opted sitting on the ground but this time with more people doing the same thing. The audience were presented with a dance drama in Cambodian language. The whole thing involved the villagers dancing, a pair of peacocks and snakes, people went hunting and finally a beautiful girl from the audience was chosen to take part in the theatre. By the way the title of the show was "Dreamy Prince's Daughter and Magic Peacock".
There was also a character playing a comic relief but he was one of the leading actors in the story I supposed as he appeared in many of the scenes.
Here is another video recording of the dance presented at Kola Village specially for you.
Finally, we went to this place called Kroeung Village to watch another show called "Choosing Fiance". The whole thing was humourous but some of the jokes (by watching the actions of the actors) would not be suitable for young kids. At one time, a young Japanese (or Korean) man was asked to take part in the drama and he had to (or was force to) take off his shirt to be one of the characters in the story.
We had to leave the cultural village as Mr. Safy, our tuk tuk driver, would be waiting for us outside at 6:00 p.m. There was another show called Drum of Success Dancing at Khmer Village but we had to make a move.
In conclusion, the Cambodian Cultural Village is the place you should visit it you like to learn the tradition and culture of the Cambodian people. We had to pay USD15 to get in there but it was worth the money spent. We were there at about 2:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. but the place opens every day at 11:00 a.m. Make sure you refer closely to the programme in the leaflet provided so that you will not miss any show.
