Thursday, November 13, 2014

Cambodge

I can't believe how fast this year is going by! It's halfway through November already. Crazy stuff.

So. On November first we got all fancied up and had a nice date.

I did not take any pictures because, like, "living in the moment" and junk.
But we had dinner at Firehouse Subs, which was actually way tastier than I expected. And I had never even heard of it before! Have you had it before? If not, go.


Afterward, we drove around and looked for apartments for rent in neighborhoods we like in Orem. We found a couple, but they all fill up too quickly :(

Next we drive down to BYU to the HFAC to see the Royal Ballet of Cambodia. It was quite the amazing experience, really. It felt good to experience another culture again. I miss anthropology sometimes. Le sigh. We even had an introduction to the evening by the Royal Prince of Cambodia himself!


There were two dances, then a musical interlude with three songs, then two more dances. I was seriously impressed with the amount of balance and control it took to perform these dances (which were choreographed by the Royal Princess herself oh la!)

My favorite dance was one called "The Dance of Moni Mekhala" (among other names), which told the story of the water goddess, who had a magic shiny orb. She danced around and showed off her orb, which made a demon giant really jealous, so the rest of the dance was them dance-fighting, and it was really cool. 


Ok sorry, sacreligious interlude over :D

At one point the demon threw his silver axe at the water goddess and it made me jump.

Other ones they did that I liked were the first dance, which was a portrayal of the four cardinal directions and Brahma, and the famous dance they've done at Angkor Wat since the 10th century.

It was a neat experience, and while I was worried the audience would be disrespectful, they were actually very polite and I hope Utah made a good impression on Cambodia's finest.

Anyway, I think we definitely need to get out more. Oh boy.

In the wings I have a rather exciting project we've been working on that I will hopefully be able to unveil next week. Stay tuned!

No comments: