This workshop is part of an ongoing Chakto project supported by Institut français du Cambodge to galvanize the cultural and creative industries in Cambodia. With a specific focus on writing, it aims at benefiting emerging Cambodian talents in four specific cultural sectors (cinema, books, dance and music), in partnership with Anti-Archive, Sipar, Cambodian Living Arts and Kongchak Pictures.
The objective of Workshop 1: Masterclass for Senior Choreographers is to strengthen the choreography writing capacity of senior choreographers by building on their foundational knowledge and providing practical experience. Participants will also serve as associate or assistant mentors for Phase 2, working alongside another lead mentor. Selected participants will receive a stipend in recognition of their time commitment.
We will offer up to Five Places for senior choreographers who will engage in an intensive masterclass led by Mr. Fouad Boussouf, director of Le Phare CCN Du Havre, and a renowned French contemporary dance mentor. The program focuses on refining participants’ choreography writing skills and enhancing their ability to conceptualize and articulate innovative dance works. More details about the mentor and Le Phare CCN Du Havre, please click this LINK.
The masterclass will span a total of 36 hours, with sessions conducted for six hours daily.
- Morning Session: 9:00 AM–12:00 PM
- Afternoon Session: 1:30 PM–4:30 PM
In addition to in-class activities, participants are expected to read materials or watch assigned videos as preparation both before and during the program. The masterclass will be conducted in English, with Khmer translation provided.
About mentor Fouad Boussouf
For Fouad Boussouf, dance is pure impulse, momentum, movement. These words also define his artistic journey, driven by his innate curiosity and desire to escape –. His early years in Morocco, in an isolated rural village of monastic simplicity – were his first artistic inspiration. His family moved to France when he was seven; here he learned the culture and codes of this new universe, and began dancing hip hop to the cassette stylings of Prince and Michael Jackson. Dance became the instrument of his personal development and his growing awareness of the body. He trained at the Paris Cité Véron Academy, taught classes in street.dance, participated in several pieces in the Suresnes Cité Danse Festival and earned a DESS degree in social science, with a thesis on hip hop.
At the age of 27, after a long road trip around Australia, he founded his Compagnie Massala and in 2010 created his first group work, Déviations.(Detours). Ignoring all attempts at labeling, he built his own hybrid, contemporary dance vocabulary which featured hip hop dance in projects often inspired by his Mediterranean roots, as well as his interest in visual arts. Beginning in 2018, the popular success of his piece Näss.(Les.Gens).(Nass.(People)), followed two years later by Oüm, an homage to Oum Kalthoum – introduced him to the international dance scene. Given his interest in pluridisciplinarity creation, he collaborated with the plastician Ugo Rondinone on the video installation Burn.to.shine (2022) and on Vïa (2023), a commissioned work from the Ballet du Grand Théâtre in Geneva. Since January 1, 2022, Boussouf, who was recently awarded the prestigious distinction of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres – has been the artistic director of Le Phare – Centre chorégraphique national du Havre Normandie.
About Le Phare CCN Du Havre
Since he accepted his nomination on January 1, 2022, of the directorship of the CCN, Fouad Boussouf has affirmed his interest in making this dance center a space for creation, community, outreach and sharing. Supported by his own artistic path as well as his lengthy pedigogical experience, the choreographer lays out his mission in three axes:
- the creation and touring of his repertory works, in France and internationally;
- sharing and support for artistic staffs, notably in structuring the local choreographic scene;
- regional development and cultural action, establishing ambitious participative projects which will include amateur and other audiences.
In Le Havre, a traditional working class city as well as a city open to new ideas, the priority will be to bring dance to the entire region, inviting each resident to become aware of his or her physical sensibility and emotions. One of the major elements in this is the annual Plein Phare Festival: its first edition was in November 2022. Over two weeks of nonstop performances, the Le Havre audiences were introduced to works by 18 up-and-coming or established companies, in a delightful diversity of forms and aesthetics.
Beginning in 2023, along with its “in” Festival in November, Plein Phare will offer a series of summer “off” performances, outside and on the Atlantic beaches. Meeting our audiences “where they are,” both geographically and as human beings, with a program which fully reflects the synthesis of expectation and accessibility – is one of the essential missions of this CCN.
With more than 80 events per year, Le Phare is now seeking to bring in new partners and sponsors, including those from outside the city. Here again the goal is to take performances out of their theatre settings and to offer the region important cultural and festive events. We are also focusing on the digital, developing access and distribution and a portal to international participation and events.
The CCN is proud of its artists, be they in residence or Associated, as well as of the strength of its rebuilt artistic team fully focused on its artistic projects. The Centre chorégraphique national du Havre Normandie intends to be, in its region and beyond – an ambassador for dance.
About the Participants
His Royal Highness
Prince Sisowath Tesso
Prince Tesso studied quite in Paris and worked as IT Engineer, at the head office of the French multinational ‘ Spie-Batignolles ‘ in the city of Cergy-Pontoise.
In 2004, Prince Tesso returns to Cambodia to bring back his father’s ashes. In 2006, he decided to move back to his homeland where he will exercise the function of Adviser to the President of the National Assembly HRH Prince Norodom Ranariddh, and in 2007 he held the position of State Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism.
His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni, appoints Prince Tesso as Advisor to his cabinet, with the rank of Secretary of State. Prince Tesso was also Private Secretary to H.R.H Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, Former Minister of Culture and Fine Arts and Director of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia. Princess passed away on November 2019.
Prince Tesso organizes and actively participates in cultural events in his country: Celebrating Royal’s birthdays, Concerts of classical music, Film festivals related to his country’s heritage, and alongside HRH Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, he promotes Khmer art, organizing performances of the Royal Ballet abroad such as the International Festival of Sacred Music in Fez Morocco, Spring Arts festival in Monaco and recently at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York etc..
In 2020 Children of Princess Buppha Devi asked prince Tesso to perpetuate the memory and legacy of their mother by opening and direct a dance school (Prince Norodom Buppha Devi Dance School). Now people from all age can come to learn and study classical dance for free every weekend. The school also is asked to present dance performances and the school has presented its new dance creation in Kuala Lumpur in November 2022.
His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni decorated Prince Tesso with the medal of Commander of the Royal Order of Monissaraphoan – Arts & Letters.
Chumvan Sodhachivy Belle)
CHUMVAN Sodhachivy (aka Belle) started her training in Khmer Classical Dance since the age of 9. After spending a few years in order to master the basics of the ancestral art, Belle has been performing mostly male roles (Nearong), while nurturing her Khmer Cultural heritage by also performing Cambodian traditional folk dance and Shadow Puppetry.
It is only at age 16 that Belle discovered the Contemporary Dance form, and its wide range of possibilities. Eager to develop her contemporary creative skills, Belle was accepted into Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center 2006 International Summer Arts Program (Supported by Amrita Performing Arts). Since then, Belle has decided to become also a choreographer, and joined numerous contemporary dance workshops around the world, and has been a featured dancer in works led by Emmanuèle Phuon, Peter Chin, Arco Renz, Peter Sellars and others renowned choreographers. Belle has travelled extensively in Asia, Europe, Africa and USA in diverse productions and festivals including an opera project directed by Peter Sellars at Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
July 2014 marks a new milestone for Belle, as she got granted a scholarship to study in New Zealand for a Semester.
Likewise, Belle is a founder of SilverBelle Dance Company. She has choreographed and developed many of her own works throughout her career. Also, she is a Vice Dean at the Faculty of Choreography of the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh.
Phorn Pheaktra (BBoy Suicide)
Phon Pheaktra, born on August 17, 1991, of Cambodian nationality, is a hip hop dance teacher at the NGO TFCF Cambodia (Family Fund for Children Organization). Pheaktra started dancing in 2008 at the NGO Tiny Toones and has since participated in numerous hip hop and breaking competitions around the world, including in the United States, Australia, Japan, and Denmark.
In 2023, he was selected to perform breakdance at the SEA Games in Japan and also participated in the Battle of the Year competition. Under the name BBoy Suicide, he won the breaking competition at the French Institute in 2024 and had the opportunity to train within the CAMPING program in Paris for two weeks in October. He also participated in the TROPHÉE MASTERS competition in Toulouse.
Yon Davy
Davy studied both classical and folkloric dance. Davy has always had a strong interst in comtemporary dance and has been involved with workshops and performances with numberous choreographers including Emmanuele Phuon, Bob Ruijzendaal, Peter Chin, Arco Renz and others and was a recipient of residency study grants for contemporary dance and choreography at the Taiwan National University of the Arts and in Surabaya. She has created a number of works by herself and through collaborations with other artists of different disciplines. She participated in the Southeast Asia Choreolap led by Janis Claxton in 2014.
Khen Vanthy
Vanthy began her training in folklore dance since 1991. Later on, she has built her interest to perform and choreograph perfroming works. Vanthy got her bachelor degree in Choreoraphy from Korean National Unversity of the Arts in 2009. Now she serves as a vice director at Secondary School of Fine Arts.