00:00Classical Cambodian dance master Peng Yom keeps a sharp eye on the movements of these teenage students.
00:09Each subtle gesture must be perfect.
00:12As the students practice, she corrects every detail, from hair to toe.
00:17This delicate, millennium-old art form of the Cambodian court was nearly killed off in Peng Yom's youth.
00:23In the 1970s, the murderous Khmer Rouge regime specifically targeted artists for death.
00:30Now age 78, she has determined the work she and other survivors have done to save her country's heritage won't be for nothing.
00:38But she worries that time is running out. Her body isn't what it used to be.
00:44Now I'm worried that classical dance will disappear, so I keep coming to help students so that this art form will remain.
00:50I keep telling these students to try their best because I barely raise my hands and legs now.
00:55For another thing, there's the fact that interest in classical dance seems to be waning among young Cambodians.
01:03The Secondary School of Fine Arts, where Peng Yom teaches, is free, but the training must start at a young age.
01:10And this year, only 39 eight-year-olds signed up, just over half the usual enrollment.
01:19A high dropout rate during the demanding nine-year course is common, as students' focuses shift to educational demands and helping parents with money.
01:29In the end, it's likely that just 15 of this group will become dancers.
01:33Still, the trainers here battle on.
01:38As teachers, we are worried.
01:40At any cost, we will continue to train so that they will know the stance,
01:45because now it is the modern era, and everything is on a smartphone.
01:56But smartphones may end up helping this art form pull through.
02:00Tolatina is 18 and finishing her last year at the school, and she knows the power of social media.
02:10Because of my passion, I want to be your next dancer and to preserve this culture.
02:15This culture is really beautiful, and I love it.
02:18I want to continue and preserve it.
02:20That's why I've been training this dance so far.
02:23Her Facebook page, where she posts her performances, has over 20,000 followers.
02:28This budding Gen Z master says classical dance won't die out if she has anything to say about it.
02:35Klein Wong, John Van Trieste, and Eric Gao for Taiwan Plus.
Comments