BELOVED
Layering evocative English narration, Khmer melodies, and Japanese Buddhist chanting onto a lush soundscape, Beloved casts a history of ritual lovemaking into the dancing bodies of gay men. Inspired by a tantric ritual recorded in the thirteenth century—in which the Khmer king would make nightly sexual unions with a naga—Beloved is a contemporary rain dance meditating on the nature and power of love.
Photo: Nobuyuki Arai.
Drops and Seeds
Created in collaboration with composer Ana Maria Rodriguez and lighting and stage installation artist Fred Pommerehn, and featuring performers from Ensemble KNM Berlin and Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA, Drops and Seeds reflects on the cycle of violence and oppression that led to the brutality of the Khmer Rouge.
Video credit: http://tanzforumberlin.de
DROPS AND SEEDS
Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA perform Drops and Seeds at the Department of Performing Arts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Photo: Nobuyuki Arai.
OF LAND AND SKY
2012
Inspired by the 1968 film Tep Sodachan directed by Lay Nguon Heng, Of Land and Sky retells and remixes the Buddhist myth at the core of the film’s narrative. It draws upon Khmer pop culture and traditional dance, sound and theater to give life to the ancient romance of an earth-bound deity and a mortal. The central lovers are re-imagined as two gay men and surrounded by a chorus of intergenerational women to explore notions of femininity, beauty, and transgressive love.
Videography by Carole Kim, courtesy of REDCAT.
BODY OF LIGHT
In Progress
A collaboration with Singaporean artist Din Chan, Body of Light explores the way that the body and photography serve as vessels of memory. Bringing together Buddhist chanting, live light painting technology, and uninhibited dance, the project meditates upon the space between life and death.
Photo: Sokleng Launh.
ROBAM LOM AROM
2010
Using Khmer classical dance, sound, and video, Robam Lom Arom imagines a woman waiting for the return of her absent lover.
Photo: Jon Rivera.
MONI MEKHALA & REAM EYSO
2018
A collaboration with TED-Ed to share Moni Mekhala & Ream Eyso, the most sacred dance drama in the Khmer classical dance repertoire.
Text: Prumsodun Ok
Animation: Silvia Prietov
WHITE CHALK HORSE
2012
A dance ritual staged in honor of the anniversary my father's passing, which occurred on my twenty-fourth birthday in 2011.
EROS BURNING IN THE FIELD OF FLOWERS
2015
Eros Burning in the Field of Flowers brings world mythology, personal and collective histories, and NASA space recordings to explore the place of LGBTQ people in our world. Employing dance, theater, and lecture, and trudging the borders of science and spirituality, the interdisciplinary work surfaces the sobering and inspiring stories of LGBTQ people to inspire courage and compassion.