Prumsodun Ok spearheads strategy and program design for art, education, and philanthropy. Synthesizing the rigor of traditional master-apprentice training with ideas from youth development and community health, Ok founded Cambodia’s first gay dance company, which grew into “one of the most revolutionary dance troupes in Cambodia . . . a dance troupe like no other” (Channel NewsAsia, Singapore). Embodying justness in movement, his students and groundbreaking original works have been celebrated as "Radical Beauty" (The Bangkok Post, Thailand).

 

Ok is a cross-disciplinary thinker, innovative creator, and master meaning-maker who has inspired narrative and culture change through talks at TED and Dance/USA, in academic publications throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States, and on major media outlets such as BBC, PBS NewsHour, AFP, Asahi Shimbun, and South China Morning Post. He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from TED, Hewlett Foundation, Dance/USA, Creative Capital, New England Foundation for the Arts, MAP Fund, and Surdna Foundation, and was honored with the Monette-Horwitz Trust Award and named an LGBT+ Creative Leader of Tomorrow by The Dots and WeTransfer on the nomination of Tea Uglow, Creative Director of Google Creative Lab in Sydney.

 

With a depth of experience and ingenuity in activism, social entrepreneurship, and community development, Ok is at the forefront of holistic changemaking. An expert networked into and working across multiple sectors, he has adjudicated applications for TED Fellows, Durfee Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, convened with culture bearers to support the design of the Center for Cultural Power’s $23 million Constellations Culture Change Fund, and served on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission's Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative. Currently, he serves on the Executive Committee of ខ្ញុំទទួលយក - I ACCEPT, Cambodia’s marriage equality campaign, and provides pro bono consultancy to Shogakuin Temple (Japan), agribusiness Thaung Enterprise (Cambodia), and music education organization Southern California Marimba (United States).

 

Ok is committed to breaking cycles of fear, poverty, violence, and voicelessness. He is invested in art and education for social change, the thriving of refugee, diasporic, and under-resourced youths and families, rightful access to and collective stewardship of nature, and the transformation of systems and cultures to create equity, harmony, peace, progress, and prosperity. Driven by a deep sense of service, Ok possesses a strong growth and building mindset which has led him to sharpen his skills through the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center’s Keieijuku Executive Training Program and the Cultural Experts Training Program facilitated by Design Council Busan and the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange. Ok seeks to bridge latent power and resources with high-impact vision and action, shaping a world where everyone may realize and offer the highest, fullest expressions of their joys, successes, and lives.

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