From front, Kong Veasna, Kim Sathia and Mao Tipmony performing at the Spotlight festival in Phnom Penh. (Vandy Rattana/Epic Arts Cambodia) International Herald Tribune
By Robert Turnbull
Published: June 24, 2008
PHNOM PENH: With the slogan, "See ability, not disability," the London-based charity Epic Arts has been challenging the common perception of disabled performing artists. "This is not about sympathy or therapy," said its artistic director and founder, Katie MacCabe. "We want to show that impairment can actually enhance creativity and that virtuosity is not the just the domain of the able-bodied."
Epic, an acronym which stands for Each Person Is Counted, established a base in Phnom Penh in 2006, three years after MacCabe first visited the city with her husband. Since the suicide of her mother and the subsequent death from polio of her father, MacCabe, 34, a professional dancer, had been seeking radical solutions to the problem of "exclusiveness" in dance, and ways of integrating disabled people into arts communities.
Cambodia represented a unique opportunity. The war-scarred country has one the world's highest ratios of disabled people, few of whom enjoy social protections. Established nongovernmental organizations like The Cambodia Trust, working exclusively with landmine victims, have been encouraging the government to draft legislation to improve their standing.
Epic's mission has been to change public attitudes by training and showcasing disabled performing artists.
Through the trust, MacCabe met Kim Sathia, a former royal dancer who had a high-profile career as professional dancer before a car accident in 1997 paralyzed her below the waist.
Though she was eager to pass on her skills to others, Kim was apprehensive about resuming dancing, until MacCabe persuaded her. Their developing relationship, and the first steps toward establishing an artistic partnership, has been sensitively captured in the 2005 film "The Return," which is currently playing at international dance festivals.
Although doors opened easily for MacCabe, the initial reaction to her work was bafflement, even among the intended beneficiaries. Disabilities were, she said, "everywhere but never discussed" and discrimination was rampant. Greater tolerance in Cambodia in recent years has barely masked a deeply conservative society that often makes a causal link between disability and an individual's bad karma.
That is changing as more performers gain confidence. The 33 artists currently working directly with Epic Arts, eight of them professional, have honed their skills and acquired more opportunities. The emergence of role models such as Kim and Pon Den, a 22-year-old landmine victim-turned-acrobat, has significantly reduced their sense of isolation.
But aside from the benefits to artists, the challenge for Epic Arts is to create a body of work strong enough to merit international scrutiny. Given the vast differences in style and technical facility, that hasn't been easy. While Kim can draw on the literally hundreds of gestures that make up the formal classical syntax, untrained dancers like Pon have adopted acrobatics as their means of expression as well as a physical intimacy more suited to MacCabe's own background in Western contemporary dance.
The answer, said MacCabe, is to "draw out inner movements that are natural to them, harnessing a range of skills into strong narrative pieces. Dancers are encouraged to push their own limits, aided by others with complementary skills. The choreographic mix is richer still when MacCabe invites the able-bodied to join the disabled, significantly blurring the lines between the two.
The discovery of other arts organizations for disabled people in East Asia led to Epic's decision to create Southeast Asia's first inclusive arts festival in late February. Produced by Hannah Stevens of Epic Arts and funded with a grant of $300,000 by the Nippon Foundation, "Spotlight" involved 200 artists in an eight-day event that featured a wide variety of disabled artists from around the region and beyond.
Stevens introduced the opening ceremony at Phnom Penh's Chaktamok Theatre to a packed house that included members of the political elite, among them Princess Buppa Devi, King Sihanouk's eldest daughter and the most famous classical dancer of her generation. Kong Nay, Cambodia's blind virtuoso of the popular two-stringed chapei, acted as the M.C. of the evening.
The appearance of wheelchairs on stage for Kim's new dance, called "Robamm Satrei," drew muted gasps and giggles from some surprised audience members. More relaxed laughter emerged later with the Singaporean actor Ramesh Meyappan's commedia del arte mime version of Dario Fo's "Mistero Buffo," an irreverent satire on modern manners which Meyappan, who is deaf and mute, has toured successfully around Asia.
Japanese acts featured strongly, including the Koshu Roa Taiko, an eight-member team of the hearing-impaired taiko drummers from Mount Fuji; and Aki Kiwashita, who has muscular sclerosis and performed with the dance troupe Creative Sora.
"Stories of Us," a powerful ensemble piece on HIV, drug addiction and sexuality from the deaf Vietnamese dance group Together Higher took some by surprise with its bleak vision and frank approach toward violence and homosexuality.
A more accessible Cambodian meditation on similar issues was "Let's Talk about Love," starring the deaf and mute circus artist Huon Sopheak as Cupid.
In an effort to engage Spotlight's audience on the "relativity" of disability, Jane Hartnell, the artistic director of the event, considered handing out blindfolds, ear muffs and other props but rejected this in favor of three moveable box-like installations designed to simulate the effects of different impairments. "Human beings retain knowledge best when they learn it," said Hartnell.
For its immediate future, Epic is looking toward securing a regional network for disabled performing artists. Stevens said she hopes that continued sponsorship from the Nippon Foundation as well the cooperation of other Southeast Asian countries will guarantee Spotlight's future. As the organization begins to plan the next event, it is openly encouraging potential participants to come to Cambodia to develop their work.
Meanwhile, the number of those seeking more immediate support continues to grow. With funds from the British Embassy, Epic will inaugurate in April a center in Kampot, a coastal town known for its large numbers of landmine victims. The center is intended to be the location of the next festival, planned for 2010. Until then, it will be engaging both disabled and able-bodied children in physical theater, shadow puppetry and arts and crafts.
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