Apsara dancers perform a danse at the Koulen restaurant.

Cambodia

Apsara, a vintag...

The Apsara Dance is a Khmer classical dance. This dance helps us experience the tension between earthly groundedness and heavenly lightness. With many classical dances today, the Apsara was painstakingly constructed or reconstructed by studying the figures carved onto the walls of Angkor Wat. Much of this work was done in the mid-twentieth century following the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Surrounded by four or six dancers, crowned with elaborate golden headdresses, the central figure, the Apsara Mera, leads her coterie on an outing to a delectable garden. The dance allows us to feel the tension and necessity of earthly groundedness and heavenly lightness.