"I used to fish." "I used to use the equipment." "To dance the dance is like, to fish in the rice field with other people, because that's what we do." "We fish and we talk with friends." "We sing." "So, when it comes to fishing, then it's kind of like, "Oh, we know this."" "Wow, I can't believe I danced here." "Sokvannara "Sy" SAR" "Six, six years ago." "It's amazing." "So, do you remember some of the things about your dance?" "There'd be like, audience all over the place, but this is pretty much all we had" "So this was-you were" "Right here." "you'rewherethestagewas?" "Right." "This is like, the" "And I'm where the audience was more or less?" "Right, this is like, downstage." "Right." "This is all you can get." "You know, and the audience would be sitting over there, watching, standing all" "It's-it's what's cool about like, dancing here, because like, the, the setting" "You're close up" "There's no setting" "Right." "But the setting, you know, it's so" "The setting is the setting" "It's perfect." "Exactly." "Yes." "From here to here, this is where like, it's all we had." "We performed here and the audience would be sitting there, all over the place, you know?" "And, these columns right here, it's like, the real wing, you know?" "We would just hide here, but it's-you can't really hide, you know?" "Yeah." "But, just pretending that you're hiding, so you would just come out and, most of the roles that I did, I either came out from this wing, be like, "solo," you know?" "Right." "And" "I saw Sy- the first time I came to Cambodia." "And, he was- performing in the Temple of the Dancers at Preah Kahn." "When Sy was performing the Fisherman's Dance, he did a duet with a young girl, and it was a very flirtatious duet." "His spirit was so full of fun and playfulness and joy." "I felt that his musicality, his suppleness and his proportions were perfectly suited for ballet." "In addition, he moved very naturally." "His body was perfect." "Several of us had really been struck by his performance." "I mean, he was just a dancer." "Once I had returned to the United States, I kept thinking about Sy's performance." "This image of him and his spirit kept coming back to me, and I thought about the fact that" "Cambodian dancers, especially male dancers, don't have much of a future." "And, I sensed a really great talent in him." "And I just kept thinking of how sad it would be to just leave that unrealized." "This thing is really, really incredible." "I never thought of becoming a dancer." "I was going to see what my father and mother wanted me to do, but dancing came along, so all right, I'll just follow my friends and see what happens." "And, maybe I can earn a couple of bucks and help my mom out a little bit because we were really, really kind of, like, down." "When he was home he helped the family a lot, but he loved to study more than to help us." "When he was nine he wanted to study dance and asked for my permission." "Times were extremely hard for us." "I told him, "If you go, who will help us?"" "He was a tiny boy, and begged me to let him study." "He promised that he would help me no matter how late he was." "I said no because my son was such a little boy and it was too dangerous to let him pick up merchandise at night." "But you know what?" "He snuck out for the dance training, even if not for the whole session." "Then he came back home to help me." "The school that I went to is called Wat Bo School." "It's the best school in the neighborhood." "My teacher was one of the dancers who danced for the Royal Family." "Nah, oh, man." "I want to have this one." "That-I can't believe how small I was." "Look at this." "I looked just like my little brother when I was a kid." "That was one of the best things, being in the school and dancing in this group, to be able to dance with my friends who I knew since third grade, and we're still friends, tight friends." "I bet they always fight because that's just the way it is." "We always fight with the girls." "You go to the front and you over there, move to the rear." "Under Pol Pot, my husband and mother died, when Prince Sihanouk returned, he decided to resurrect the art of dance, so I set up a dance school for children here." "I can remember Sy was in my third class of the school." "Sy was not a good looking boy, he was teeny and not fully developed." "Sometimes he came shoeless." "He was a poor boy and had to walk a long distance from home." "Because of Sy's small size I assigned him the role of the monkey." "He continued to dance that role for quite some time." "When he grew up, I assigned him major roles." "Sy learned fast." "I told his parents that they have a lucky child and he might become something." "Pretty good, Teacher!" "I am a little bit nostalgic." "Yes." "It's fun." "The one with the chipped front tooth in the purple shirt is quite good." "Which one?" "The one in the purple shirt." "He's pretty good." "I did not believe it until I was contacted by a gentleman directing Preah Khan's restoration who told me a lady wanted to bring Sy to the United States and he asked me if I could arrange it." "I said okay but I would have to speak to his parents." "I told them that this is one of a thousand or even ten thousand chances so they asked me, "Teacher, what should we do?"" "I told them to put their authorization on paper." "The culture for every country is, is the soul of that country." "When you start a nation building, when you start to reconstruct a society which have collapsed, you have to start- first of all, with the culture." "You have to give back the basic of what people stand for." "And you have to respect the past and embrace the future." "People tend to forget that Cambodia was an empire from the eighth, tenth, twelfth century." "We were the Khmer Empire." "So, the culture is very strong." "The Khmer culture has influenced all Southeast Asia." "Especially for the Cambodians, it's the culture was completely confused and everybody lost track and, especially during the Khmer Rouge time, there was no culture at all." "Sacredness is an issue that is the foundation of all performing arts in Cambodia." "The sacredness that you receive from the artists all the time is of a level of passion that we just never find anymore in the West." "You would never do a performance of any form whether it be modern theater- or classical dance without lighting incense first and thanking the ancestors who taught you this form that give you the empowerment and the permission to actually be on this stage." "And what right do you have to still be here despite the fact that your ancestors are no longer here and what happened here?" "That level of gratitude to those who made it possible for them to actually even be here is what drives the performing arts in this country." "The Khmer Rouge era had destroyed Cambodia- to a point that today we are one of the poorest countries." "When I first came back, it was like a time warp." "Nothing was destroyed, but the biggest destruction was in the soul of the people." "All Cambodians had their soul amputated and they had no more emotion." "Their eyes didn't smile anymore like they used to smile." "The natural happiness, the natural joy, had vanished." "It's still buried there somewhere." "So now, we are on a crossroad; the future of Cambodia lies in the children hands." "The best way to my mind, is to make the children of tomorrow the guardian of their land, of their environment and to teach them-but we are winning slowly, slowly." "We are winning." "To dare them to dream and to just demonstrate that the dream can come true." "One day I came to school and my teacher was like, "Sy, come here, there's something I need to tell you."" ""There was somebody who saw you doing a performance who would like to ask you to come to" "America and do a couple of things."" "And I was just like, "It can't be just that simple."" "They asked me if I would like to take a look at the ballet school, if I'm interested and could stay, they would support me." "Anne sent some video tapes, like, ballet tapes." "We had this crappy TV that works from time to time and we decided to watch it." "I had no idea what they were doing, you know, wearing leotards and pointe shoes, staying on their toes." "I'm like, "What is that thing?"" "It was like, completely new to us, so we had no idea what it was." "I was like, "I don't think I like this."" ""Is this what I'm gonna be doing?"" "I don't know, but what can I say, you know?" "I knew that my parents would say yes because in the long term I would be able to help them." "I just feel bad that our family is so poor and we have a lot of siblings." "I want them to go to proper schools, have tasty food to eat." "I used to fish for them, to feed them when my mother was in the hospital." "So I asked my parents, you know, if, if they would let me to go to America." "But, in my mind I already decided that, you know, I'm going to America." "Yay!" "The first time I met Sy was when he arrived in New York." "I went to the airport to meet him along with an interpreter that I had found." "She was doing this traditional-I don't know how she learned it-but she's, you know, kind of like greeting, kind of like in a polite way." "And he came off and I thought, "Oh dear, he looks so -in a way helpless."" "All of a sudden I thought, "Well, I guess he's my responsibility now."" "Stay tall." "Andup." "Plie, two." "Side, stay." "Close front." "Arm and leg have to arrive simultaneously." "Two, and reach for your life." "And out, two." "Don't drop." "Stay." "Close back." "It seems like a long time ago when I first took a ballet step." "I remember a little bit of my audition at the School of American Ballet with Peter Boal and Jock Soto, along with a few people watching." "Stay, now, soft back." "And just releve with one arm, to rest." "A beautiful pose." "To other arm." "Around." "To other side." "Soft." "Control, pile." "Ah" "Has to sound." "That was good." "Didn't know anything; didn't understand English." "They were telling me to do a couple of things and I just had no idea what to do." "They were showing me some stuff and I tried to copy them." "But, no idea how the steps supposed to be because I've never seen ballet before." "And stay." "Close." "Up." "Plie." "Rotate, and up." "Let this music totally" "And fall." "And releve." "Pull up." "Stay." "Hat." "Turn." "Watch your feet." "Stay." "And up-like nostalgic." "It has to have, like, little nostalgic because of the music." "I remember Anne Bass coming into the office- so excited, having returned from her trip to Cambodia, and she brought these photographs in of this boy with this extraordinary face." "And to me, dancers are people, and they come from within." "And I've had dancers with the right feet and the right limbs and the right flexibility and the right proportions, and they don't do anything for me." "And Sy's face represents who he is as a dancer." "It electrifies." "It makes people melt." "It charms." "And that's what you're going to see on stage." "He was older than a kid could even feasibly start ballet." "You start at eight." "I started just before I was ten." "It was already a little late." "Maybe somebody arrives at eleven, but this was impossible." "Already the cards are stacked against him." "He has dance training." "He's probably at the top of that dance training, but it's not classical ballet training in the history of the School of American Ballet." "So, we'll take him in." "We'll look at an audition, but, you know, it's so unlikely." "But do you remember the big drama?" "Sy had his audition with Jock Soto and Peter Boal?" "Yes, yes, I did not know." "So, I presumed everything was decided-he is accepted." "He did very well." "He picked up the movement." "I came, and I pointed his foot and I looked at you like, "Not bad."" "He has good feet, he has good extension, he has incredible pile, he has great jump, and I think, you know, he'll be fine." "Jock Soto and I go in to audition Sy and, you know, here I am giving him, "Sy, let's"" "try tombe pas de bourree, glissade assemble."" "Well, he doesn't understand what tombe pas de bourree, glissade assemble is." "So, already there's this disconnect, so that-that's okay." "I mean, also, there's a language barrier." "We made him turn his feet out." "And his legs." "And we made him do a pile." "And he, he was holding his, his hands like this, which is close enough to, to ballet, so it was like a-the first time I saw him I thought, "This, this boy is stunning." "He's so beautiful."" "And I didn't have a clue of what he could do." "So I'll demonstrate the step, which is a way to get around this." "And Sy does not a bad imitation of what I had done: tombe pas de bourree, glissade assemble." "But, he doesn't understand the finer details of, you know, I talked about a hand." "Now, we, we obsess over exactly the angle of this finger." "But, but Sy's hands are, you know, they're like this in an imitation of my hand, which is" "a, a first sign that we look like-you know, he hasn't studied the hand positions." "So, he doesn't have that expertise or that knowledge." "So, so on hands alone, he's not ready." "Then, we didn't know how to explain this, but we said to him, "Can you jump?"" "And then he ran really fast and then jumped in the air in some scary position and landed." "And I looked at Peter Boal and I said, "Okay, Peter, he's got a jump, so we could start there."" "Tombe pas de bourree, the glissade, were all wrong." "But, the assemble flew up in the air like I haven't seen somebody fly up in the air." "I mean, just flew and then it landed with this incredible cushion of a pile." "That I don't think I've ever seen on a dancer." "So there was the extraordinary and there was the complete lack of training." "And, coupled with the age and how the school operated, it just was a no." "He just wasn't ready to be accepted." "A lot of people who, you know, who don't start until like, they're thirteen or fourteen, but they just" "But still, that's still two years younger than" "Almost three years younger than you were when you came." "You were almost seventeen." ""Anne Bass ask me, 'so'?"" "And I said, "Well, he, he has this, and this and this."" ""He is going to be okay."" "And they looked at me like in disbelief." "And they said, "Oh no, he we auditioned him and he could not do balance or a waltz."" "And I said, "I don't understand you."" ""He is from other country."" ""He could not-rhythmically he didn't do it right."" "And I said, "I don't understand."" ""Balance is a very difficult, complicated step."" ""And he never probably heard the piano music."" "And they said to me, "Oh, Olga, you know, but you, you, you're not going to teach him."" "Do you remember what happened?" "I got a call from Peter, Martin's assistant, who said, "Peter needs to talk to you."" "And I said, "Is it about the Cambodian boy?"" "And I said, "I'll be right there."" "So, I jumped into the car and went over and I literally begged Peter." "I said, "Peter, please just give him a chance."" ""I promise he has something that you just can't teach to someone." ""It's something really special." ""What if he were just able to study with Olga this summer and then if he does well, perhaps-you know, in the fall you could reconsider your decision?"" "And he said, "Well, okay, that would work."" "I didn't even know what was going on." "No, I know." "But, I mean, I think you weren't quite sure what was going on." "I thought I was going to be studying at a school." "I didn't know that there was such a thing as" "OLGA KOSTRITZKY No, no, it was a big turmoil." "Olga takes them from children and she makes them do these things that, that-I mean, her class is one of the hardest classes I've ever taken." "So, I can-we just said, "We'll start with Olga and then later on he'll come to our classes."" "And I remember after the first class, I came outside the studio and I was walking and I realized that-why am I walking like this, like, turned out like this, like a little duck?" "I'm like, "Man, is this going, , is this going be what I'm going be doing, you know", this ballet thing is going turn me into like, a little duck." ""I'm I don't think I want to do this."" "OLGA KOSTRITZKY It was little torture for both of us." "I remember our first class" "I moved his foot and I made his knee straight." "He didn't speak English." "I didn't speak Cambodian." "And so, it was very complicated." "And it was a little fight between us." "And I understand, you know, at first, for him, it didn't look beautiful." "Secondly, he had horrible cramps in his feet." "The whole couple weeks we were doing this basic tendu, just using the barre." "And I thought ballet was just like, using the barre." "And I don't know how long I'm going to have to stand on the barre and just do this weird thing." "And at certain point, maybe in a couple of weeks or so, we started doing center-without a barre." "That was the first feeling that I'm like, "Oh, huh."" ""That's funny." "The center."" "So I'm like, "Oh, this is not bad."" ""This is pretty cool." "It's getting interesting."" "And then we went to Saratoga and I think it was a little better for him." "Tendu, developpe, tendu, developpe" "At the end of the course, he received an award for the most improvement." "First arabesque and then point your toes." "Nice." "I remember seeing all these little kids and staying in the same dormitory." "The first day, taking class with those little kids" "I feel like I was so dumb, I couldn't do anything." "Even though that was my first month, I feel like, "Why can't I"" "do the things that these kids can do?"" "He's a charmer." "He's a sweetheart." "Everybody fall in love with him." "He picked up the language." "Do you want to say something for Sy's family?" "It's a video." "It's a video?" "Yes." "Oh my God." "So do you want to say something to " "To the family?" "Well I hope he's going to be what I want him to be." "He's doing great." "He's doing very good." "Great!" "Good dancer." "And this is the system that happens at the School of American Ballet." "I think it's a good system." "Olga really is the primary instructor for boys starting out at the" "School of American Ballet." "And then, I am the second teacher that they meet." "I was put into a class with these little kids, age nine, level 2 and level 3." "I remember, I was the only kid who was like this and I was the oldest kid there" "And felt kind of strange and feel pretty dumb doing whatever I was doing." "The whole ballet thing, just wearing tights, t-shirts and standing at the barre and trying to turn my hip out in 10,000 different directions, I don't know if I really liked it." "I just kind of wanted to spend a little more time and see what happens." "Step." "Up." "Fifth, da, da, da." "The first two years of studying ballet, I was alone in a studio with Olga." "Point your foot." "Right foot." "That." "And two, and one, and two, and up." "Hold." "In." "Arms." "One." "To the side." "Now keep your foot, keep your back." "On the leg, in." "And, and, and, and tombe." "No, no, no, no, no." "It doesn't matter how difficult it is; you have to finish it." "Move your shoulder." "Move you shoulder and finish it." "I want you to pull opposite." "For someone who do not want to have anything to do with ballet and private classes with just one teacher." "But, it-I'm there." "It wasn't easy for him." "He had often headaches." "His body cried." "His arm were tired." "His mind was tired." "He had cramps, horrible cramps because his muscles wasn't ready to do like, hour and a half of these difficult exercises." "One, two, one, two." "Rest, stay, pile, hold, in and one." "By the way, I, I didn't know that I was going to have to go to school again because I had to take like, these same subjects that I took back home in my own language that I couldn't do-in English, I don't know how that was going to happen." "I remember the first day and see all these different kids and different nationalities." "And I realized, "Oh man, there's no Cambodian people here."" "So I was feeling isolated, lonely and the rules and all those things you can think of," "it's just so, so overwhelming." "It's just so, so different." "And" "The routine of going to PCS in the morning, take classes at School of" "American Ballet in the afternoon and at spare time, classes with Olga was just like, ridiculous." "I didn't want to deal with it at all." "Watch your hip." "Every day he would go through enormous amount of material." "I would come home and I would say, "I can't believe it."" "So you have to really control it." "You're here." "Just your arms takes you there." "And" "It was frustrating, anger and all the things you can think of." "Rest." "Yes." "Up." "Beautiful." "It was a lot of work on his part, and willingness to understand what I want and work so hard." "Down" "Taking classes with Olga was just really tough." "We had some dramas, some misunderstandings because we couldn't communicate." "For her to spend time with me in the studio, take all her expensive time to deal with my crappy behavior?" "I don't know how she dealt with it." "The longer I was working with Olga, just keep hearing more things about her, how fantastic she is, how intelligent and awesome she is as a ballet teacher" "Just the best teacher around, but I didn't know." "I thought she was just one of the regular teachers." "But now, I know because when looking back through the old tapes, the things that I could do now, it's from her." "She taught me all those things in such a short amount of time, and I see what people mean that Olga is the best." "You see that's beautiful pointe work." "Oh, that's, that's the, the bad one." "That's not bad." "It's your bad foot." "Yes." "You see how nice it is?" "I worked it better." "You worked it better, that's your answer." "This is it, you see?" "Look at the ending of it." "That's beautiful." "Oh, that's beautiful, oh." "You're" "It is good, you know?" "I, I have a chance to see it all over." "Head to the side a little more." "Mhm hm." "Stay there" "I can't believe I did this after like, a year." "Stay and" "No." "Oh man." "That is way too hard, Olga, for like, a person who's done for a year, you know, ballet." "What?" "Now, do you see yourself?" "That's way too hard." "If you couldn't do it, I wouldn't give it to you." "I, I don't know when" "Do you do it, or you don't?" "Yeah, I mean, I, I did it" "Okay, and you just said you, you did it better and cleaner than you do it now." "Oh yeah." "Then, you see, this is your answer." "I love how she plays." "Look, do you see it?" "Okay." "No, I'm just saying I can't believe I did this" "Of course, of course!" "Same here, you know?" "But, if you, if you" "Pointed the bottom foot." "You, you judge by the situation, you know, what you can do it-and arms is beautiful too." "Did you see how it closed?" "Yeah." "You didn't drop your foot, okay?" "I don't do this thing anymore." "I should" "That's right." "Maybe you should take the film home to Seattle and study it." "While I was adjusting to it, while I got to take more classes and see more things about ballet, I realized that it's not so bad." "Certain things that was really fun, so I started to enjoy it more and more." "At first, Sy was very shy, I could tell." "I think a couple of times, I did put him with a girl and, you know, just make sure that he partnered her." "I think Sy has natural instincts for partnering." "I think he's just got to do it more." "The biggest challenge for him was the actual connecting of steps." "This will be straight arm side." "And musicality a little bit because he was thinking so hard about connecting the steps that he'd get off the music." "And gently put her down please." "That was nice Sy, good." "Reach across and" "His body changed." "He got stronger." "His legs changed." "He grew." "He became like a different person." "And there were things that were better than any other kid in the class, and things that were challenging for him." "I'm not sure how to define this, but it was almost like customs of a country, a system of etiquette even." "One thing that we went back and forth with Sy about a number of times was finishing combinations" "And, in Sy's mind, it was important, but not that important." "It was how you executed the step, and if you didn't execute the step well and you were frustrated and you wanted to walk to the back of the room and start again, but for ballet teachers in this age old culture of the ballet studio, finishing the steps was, was a very" "important part of the training because there are no second chances on stage and in performance." "And you have to train yourself how to finish." "Teachers many times immediately interpret that as an offense and a rudeness to the teacher." "I've created this small piece of choreography that I've given to you and to walk away from it." "It was really quite offensive to some teachers." "That was a very hard lesson for Sy to learn." "He's still learning it." "But, you know, the, the one thing that I always found with Sy was there was, there was an enormous respect for all of his teachers." "He didn't stop a combination to be offensive." "This is third summer." "Can you believe it?" "Amazing." "He doesn't feel kind of like he has to be on guard all the time, for whatever reason, you know?" "I think it's difficult." "I would react." "It's difficult." "And here is two female, tell him what to do." "Unheard of in his culture." "He would tell me all the time, "I'm a man, you can't do that."" "Find anything interesting?" "Can you imagine how long it took to make?" "Yes." "To construct?" "Okay, calmly." "What is it?" "No." ""La Source."" ""La Source."" "He loves this variation and I'll tell you why because of this part, it's danceable; it's dance." "It's not only cabriole;" "I know what's in his mind." "It's too slippery, Sy?" "Don't worry if it's not right, we will stop it if it's necessary." "It's only for his parents." "I wouldn't like anybody to hear me playing it." "Oh no, no, no don't worry, it's only for his parents." "Okay, Sy?" "You ready?" "Da?" "Go and, one" "Rest, rest, stay and" "Rest." "Nice." "And rest." "Rest, rest, rest, rest." "And, small." "Just feet." "Fall and" "Rest, stay." "Okay, Sy." "No, no." "You, you have to give yourself a chance." "You go-look, look at me." "One second, and then you go." "Never rush the last pirouette." "But, the whole variation was much better." "Okay." "To me, you know, he understands what the choreographer wanted, what the music dictates." "I still don't comprehend." "How did he accomplish what he accomplished in three years?" "Just take your time, take your time." ""Square Dance"?" "When Sy first entered the dormitory at the School of American Ballet, it was very, very difficult for him because he didn't speak English, so I'm sure he felt like an outsider for some time." "And I was just haunted by this image of him when he left his performance in Cambodia with his friends, and he was laughing and he was obviously the most popular person in the group." "And I would watch him in New York and he would be so serious and almost like, on the sidelines for so long." "And it really wasn't until he had been there about four years that I began to feel that he had real friends." "I had to adapt like, little things on my own to, to keep myself a little entertained." "So I found out they have pool, they have ping-pong tables, they have good movie theaters to go to, and then as time goes on, I got to know more people and I got to be able to go places on my own." "One of the things that I did was take the train almost every weekend to go to the Bronx and see this Cambodian family that I knew through my translator." "Every time I went there they just cooked me some really good food." "They've been really nice to me." "They treat me like one of their children." "See that?" "What is this?" "Finally, after three years, I graduated from high school." "I thought that was really awesome, to have a high school diploma." "And we had to wear this, what do you call those, cap and gown?" "And then I found out later that it's like, "Oh, okay."" ""All right, Honors, which is pretty cool."" "I don't mean to brag about that, but" "I kind of got adapted to life in America more after a couple of years." "Finally I got to laugh at the white kids' jokes." "I believe it was 2004, the year before he graduate." "Balanchine choreographed a piece for corps called "Tombeau"" "Sy was one of the male dancers." "He was absolutely fantastic." "And, he was mentioned in New York Times." "It was 2005 when he graduate, Benjamin" "Millepied choreographed very complicated and beautiful piece, it's "28 Variations."" "It's very much a virtuoso classical ballet to Brahms" "Balanchine in-inspired by pieces like" ""Liebeslieder" and "Brahms Schoenberg."" "And at that point, he already had learned and assimilated the classical idiom and he did great with it." "His performance quality, I think is very bravura." "That sort of mature-ness that he has is beautiful to look at without even acting." "He's a performer naturally." "The one quality I see with the Cambodian dancing and the ballet dancing is that he was already a performer, so he knew how to project to an audience." "The technique definitely is not the same as ballet at all, so I mean, it's, it's interesting that he had already come with a performance quality." "It's very important to have in your life, a male dancer." "Peter Boal is the most elegant dancer ever." "To see that big man move in such a beautiful manner." "He speaks quietly, he is more controlled and Jock" "Jock is a very special dancer." "You know, it's a lot of dancers and Jock Soto." "Each of them could contribute to the male dancer, to make them more understand." "Jock is incredible pas de deux teacher, as well as ballet teacher." "So I think the combination of three of us created what it is now." "You know, I can't say it's all my hundred percent." "I did a lot, you know, I taught him a lot, you know, but it is three of us." "Up two, and one, two, go." "Up, sit, one, two, and two, three, four, five, six, out, and done, up, now" "No, that, was right, there's no space, but if you do the ending it's romantic" "And you did "Don Q."" "Olga is a great coach." "She has a great eye." "She's also incredibly honest which is sometimes difficult for people, but it's so refreshing." "You know, she'll never lie." "Two and up two." "Stay and" "Olga has an extraordinary eye all the way to the last detail." "She's an absolutely excellent coach, tough, but in a good way." "The kids really love her." "And stay." "Okay, could be that." "That was nice." "And it wasn't that it was-we were forcing him on this fast track, it's just that he was able to learn what he needed to learn and accomplish what he needed to accomplish in such a short amount of time to go up a level, which was great because if he couldn't, he" "wouldn't have made it as a professional dancer." "It really was quite remarkable, I, I would've said it's a one in a thousand chance that this could work, and I think we found that one." "How long did it take you to get to my house?" "I forget the directions." "I asked everybody but couldn't find it." "Hello!" "How are you?" "Mother" "Master Teacher is here" "I couldn't find your house." "I had to ask for directions!" "Teacher, do you know those guys?" "Of course I know them!" "They are all my students." "This one is my student" "This is my student and also my nephew." "Thank you." "I'm very happy to see that one of my students has reached such a high level of performance" "Keo SA ROEUM Khmer Dance Teacher in a different dance from what I taught him." "In January, the U.S. State Department organized an evening of American and" "Cambodian cultural performances to celebrate the dedication of the new American Embassy building." "When I found out I was invited to perform in" "Cambodia I was like, you're not serious." "If I come here to perform for my people, I want myself to be a little more professional because right now I'm just like, a student, I'm just an apprentice." "We came to dance ballet for the first time in 40 years." "What would they think of me when they see me?" "And not just my family, just like, the whole audience?" "Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen." "At first I did not have any desire to train, but since I was already there, I became more and more curious, and I wanted to know what would happen to me if I trained." "So I was very excited and proud- to be part of that process and I wanted to sort of really help him through it as much as possible, and it was a huge event." "And once the rosin was on the floor, and we had dealt with the lighting, the costumes, and we dealt with his rehearsal and we dealt with everything else, the performance started and there was a dance of greeting from traditional Cambodian Apsara dancers." "As part of the greeting, they throw jasmine all over the stage to welcome the audience, and I almost died when I saw that because, of course, all I could think of was that" "Sy's going to slip on the jasmine petals." "It was kind of harsh because, you know, first of all there was like, no real light on that stage, no real wing." "The floor was, it was like concrete under and like, wood on top, and really slippery, really, really slippery." "And it was like, it was like, tilted like this." "Because there were many other things happening that evening, but it really felt like this was the, you know, the star feature for the night because it was a Cambodian coming home." "I think he was received with all the passion that he deserved." "People were shocked and they were surprised and they were thrilled and, and also bewildered for the Cambodians who had never even seen Western ballet, don't know what it is." "And so, suddenly they see this handsome young Cambodian come flying on the stage leaping, feet above earth level, and that's so completely what they don't see." "All dance in Cambodia is absolutely about the ground, worshipping the ground." "It's very sacred." "Sy's performance was fantastic because it was the first time for him to be able to perform in front of the Cambodian public, in front of his own parents moving from the royal tradition, classical Khmer ballet, to a real ballet." "Sy represents an inspiration to many young in the world" "Not only to the Cambodians." "The Cambodians themselves are so proud of him." "He will become a good ambassador." "I am really happy to see Sy excelling in a form of art so different from traditional Cambodian dance." "However, I wish his primary job was in the government" "Or a doctor." "When I saw my son dancing on stage, I was extremely thrilled and happy." "I never thought my son would have such a destiny." "But beyond this point I don't understand anything regardless of how important it might be." "When I look at the variation, it's so funny." "I feel like it's your life." "Before we went to Cambodia, when you were, were rehearsing me in Seattle for" ""Square Dance," and you said that, "Just dance like you're homesick."" "That's the only thing I remember, and when I was onstage in Cambodia, even my family was right in front of me watching, but I felt like, "Oh, my home is so far away."" ""Square Dance"" "It just transcended the international language of performance, which is so much about what we try to do anyway in our work, is to try to really bridge the gap, to really maintain the sacredness of Cambodian culture, but at the" "same time, begin to open up the doors between the West and the" "East and begin to find out, what are those relationships about?" "And, to have a young Cambodian dance Western ballet so beautifully and with such passion, and with the kind of integrity and passion that he would've had as a young, traditional Cambodian dancer, but to have him actually" "translate that into Western ballet was, was deeply moving." "Sy is a, a beautiful person with a very special aura." "And for him, it is important to link back with the children from the villages, to be their big brother image-the role model, and the proof that the dream can come true." "Last year he was present at the demonstration of dance at the center and he was explaining to the children that, you know, it's fantastic to dance." "It's such a beautiful expression, but it's very hard work." "But, once you manage to master this art, you will become so happy, and it's the best gift." "And the children ask him, "So, but then you are our big brother and you are in America."" ""Are we going to see you?"" "He said, "Yes, I'm coming to see you once a year, so you better"" "do lots of progress and dance well."" "There was something very special about this individual." "And there's also something incredibly honest about him that I appreciated." "My contribution was recognizing that and wanting to find out what was best for him." "Part of that was trying to help him find the right employment." "I'm always telling Sy, "Come to Seattle."" ""Spend a year with us as a student and let's see how it goes."" "Sy came to Seattle and was absolutely the best male dancer in our school that year." "Had a whole renewed level of focus, seriousness, determination, took great benefits from the training offered here, and turned in this performance of Oberon in "A" ""Midsummer Night's Dream" that really was remarkable and brought the house down." "And, absolutely earned an apprenticeship with this company." "The Varna Competition was right before I was about to accept my job as a company member at PNB." "Do you remember going to Varna?" "It was all about your visa." "To get an O visa, you have to be an outstanding artist." "To be an outstanding artist, you have to perform with a company." "To perform with a company, you have to have an O visa." "This was to give you the opportunity to show what your potential was." "Well, just" "This is Varna, Bulgaria, a historic port city on the shores of the Black Sea." "It was founded by the Romans, captured by the Turks, and liberated by the Russians." "To the East European, Varna is one of the most popular summer resorts with tourists arriving by the hundreds to enjoy the lovely beaches and warm waters." "But to the rest of the world, the dance world, Varna is the place to be." "Can you remember what it was like when you first walked into that theater?" "We were stunned." "First, it's not big." "Second, the stage was dirty and anything, it's not a ballet stage." "It was wooden." "It was absolutely distorted." "It was huge gaps between the planks of the floor." "I'm trying to see if this is a good example of the floor in the" "Yes, only, only it was wider in between." "It was wider." "Yeah." "You could practically put a toe between the boards." "Yes, it was just like" "Yes, and then we asked, just to be sure, if this is where it's going to be." "They said, "Oh, of course."" "And Sy said, "Oh, Olga, not me." "I'm not going to do it."" "So I said, "Listen, Baryshnikov danced, and Bujones, and Makarova."" ""If they could do it, then we're going to do it like everybody else."" "Number 130, 136." "Cambodia, Sokvannara Sar, number 123." "Do you remember when it was raining, they tried to dry the floor with this alcohol and a fire?" "I, I think they poured alcohol all over the stage." "And" "And then someone went around and ignited it." "Yes." "And that just was supposed to burn off " "Dry-the water." "I was ready to go." "And then, ah, I have got to wait." "And then, ah, it's my turn." "Ah, it's not me." "And then when I'm not expecting it." "Competitor number 123, Sokvannara Sar, Cambodia." "Adam, Giselle." "On the videotape it doesn't look like something happened, but we were a little upset because the last pirouette did not work." "He got so frustrated." "So when he left, I said to Anne, "Oh, Anne, I don't know if he's going to come and do his"" "Bournonville performance because you have to really pull yourself together."" "Then you came and you nailed it." "To me, this is a fighter." "That was incredible moment." "And I think it was like breaking moment in somebody's personality." "Preliminary Round" "This was absolutely stunning." "He brought the house down." "He didn't know he has to take a second bow." "So that was very sweet, and he became a semifinalist." "It was kind of hectic being one of the competitors." "There's not much time for you to, to work on, you know, not, not just to say the actual performance, but the, the time to prepare for the performance, you know?" "For example, we rehearsed at three o'clock in the morning." "It was ridiculous." "I think one of the best parts of the competition for Sy was sharing the stage with dancers from ballet companies throughout the world." "To me it's not even medal or money because the learning process is priceless." "You learn so much in such a short time, it was like a ballet boot camp." "Sy did so well in the semi-finals that we were very disappointed to learn he was not among the five finalists, but the next morning it was some consolation to find Sy's photograph in the national newspaper." "No one had ever seen a Cambodian ballet dancer and Sy was very proud to represent his country." "I think we have 13 different countries represented, people coming from different schools" "And then united by the training here." "I'll brag a little bit, I thought the caliber of dancing was really on a par with the New York dancers." "I thought there was such a high level of talent." "One morning toward the end of the year, he called me, I was so surprised." "I answered, I was like, "Peter Boal?"" ""Peter Boal called me?"" "I jumped out of bed." "I was like, "Hi, Peter."" "All right, guys." "I think we should begin." "Why don't we do one more frappe?" "Let's do this one and double to the front, beat, beat, front, double to the back, beat, beat," "He pretty much asked me to be here, and then take a job." "I was kind of surprised too because I was not really a-the perfect student at the school." "Double to the back, beat, beat front, double to the front." "Beat, beat, back, double to the front, beat, beat front, good." "Take it to the other side." "I thought it would be a good place for me to be here." "Everybody is so alive, just like, dancing, having fun." "Even up here too." "This always scares me a little bit when he compliments me a lot." "That's when I get kind of worried that I'm going to let him down, so I asked him many times, "Are you sure about this?"" ""Because I've just been dancing, like, what, three years, four years?"" "And, he's like, "Well, there's something about you."" ""I like the way you move and, you know, da-da-dah."" "And I just kept saying, "I'm just scared that I'm just going to let you down."" "Good, nice." "On the, the "Corsaire" jump in the air, a little more turnout." "I will-this side." "Yes, you can do it." "He said, "Don't worry about it."" ""I believe in you, you know, I believe in you."" "So I was like, "Okay."" ""You know, now I have got to be better than this."" "And you want to use this foot, you know?" "Turn?" "Yeah, yeah." "Last one, man." "Before I hurt my ankle." "I started taking classes and, uh, working with them and I started to know who they are a little bit more so now I'm a little bit more comfortable with them, and I do like this company." "I just like the people here." "You know, you're a student, you're not too worried about things." "'Cause wherever you throw your leg, that's where you're going to turn." "Maybe I do it too low?" "Yeah, it's too low, yes" "Yeah, it's too low?" "If you throw it up" "Once you're in the company, you have this big responsibility on your shoulders, so I knew I have to put a lotta work on it because" "I'm scared or something." "I don't want to mess it up." "It's going to be hard a little bit, real responsibility, real job, real profession." "And then from there-ankle, we do that here." "You know?" "It's that-that part right-right here." "You know?" "Alright." "I'll work on it." "Come here." "I want you to see the whole thing once." "I don't think you knew Ben Bowman but he used to dance with the company, with City Ballet." "And I think this interpretation is right on." "And he was actually not unlike you, not a big guy, but this phenomenal jump." "It's hard to get the character across 'cause you have a mask, so the acting has to be really bodily" "He's just a little bit late, yes." "Twyla was visiting." "And she came in to watch me rehearse the Jester, or the Harlequin in "Sonnambula."" "And she saw them all and thought they all looked terrific, which they did." "And then you go-that's right." "Good, good." "And, and just to give you the whole image, your head should come a little down here and then it should go out." "Balance, pas de chat en tournant, soutenu." "And did you see how fast this is?" "It's right, left, right, left, right." "She said, "Who's that one?" about Sy, she said, "He's really remarkable."" "And he was the one that she, she was so taken with." "Step right through, bell kick, bell kick, assemble, six." "She was really quite impressed with the acting, the clarity, the character, how he got the essence of what the role needed." "And I hadn't said, "Oh, this is Sy and he's a, apprentice."" ""And I'm"-she just said, "That dancer, who is he?" ""'Cause he's really got what the role requires."" "But after they click, open them again." "Yeah, see how that has a little more humor to it?" "Yeah." "It looks like you're a puppet." "So you landed here, and then let me see you hurt your back." "Yeah, yeah." "And if you look closely on the tape, you can actually see Ben's mouth go-yes, like, "Oh, I'm in trouble now."" "Now let's go look at Ben." "And this time they don't work at all." "Yes." "Looks cool." "Looks cool." "Do you think you could do that?" "I could tell you I couldn't." "Sy does have something that you can't teach to someone." "He absolutely understands what an audience needs and what charm is and what expression is." "And those tools, I imagine he had them from day one, that's something that was in the photograph that Anne brought in." "How many people can jump out of a photograph and make you feel something?" "It's hard to define, but some people say it's the fairy dust, it's the, it's the special quality that, that makes a performer so engaging." "But the real challenge for Sy would be to be a partner, and in a sense, to become a, a romantic leading man, but we're starting in a great place." "now step across and pull away." "And now you should be in line this way." "You see that?" "We're making these lines here?" "And then you go back to where you were." "Partnering's not one of my best things." "So James, we didn't really get to this yesterday, did we?" "Not-a little bit, okay." "You should be on the same foot as her, so left." "It's definitely a challenge for me." "That means I'll have to start working now." "In Cambodia, you know, I loved dancing with my partner." "Here, I like dancing with partners, but I started to like being just an individual dancer, being a soloist." "It gives more joy." "Stretch a little bit." "Stretch a little bit." "You know?" "I remember having a conversation with Sy and telling him that by this time" "I was quite committed to his future and to him." "And, under no circumstances did I want him to continue with ballet if he wasn't passionate about it." "But, he assured me that he did love ballet and he did want to continue." "And, I had no choice but to believe him." "And I do think that whether he was telling me the truth or not, at this point, that has come true and he does love what he's doing." "Okay, man." "Let's go." "Okay." "You have four,." "Two, stay, go" "The idea of jumping like a cat is so cool." "I tried to find a way for me to jump higher and land softer." "Guess what?" "It feels so great." "It feels good when you jump and you just land really soft, just using the tip of your toes." "Stay up and hold." "Damian Woetzel saw a video of Sy at Varna doing Benjamin's ballet to music by" "Philip Glass, and he invited him to perform it at Vail." "Philip Glass, I do have an affinity for him." "Particularly for these piano pieces that he put out a couple of years ago, and this is one of them, this Etude Number Five." "I felt they were really Chopin-esque and very romantic, and really quite beautiful." "Two years ago at Varna, Sy was still a student." "This time around, I think the big change is that he went from being a boy to being a man." "So you're a little late in a couple of places you know what I mean?" "Keep-now, keep your right, left, right, left from here, keep this leg moving, moving, moving, moving, you know?" "Oh, that's okay, that's okay." "As a dancer he has very much an animalistic quality-power and strength and a quality of movement that is really beautiful." "Now here, still watch." "See how you can, you can really-that's why you have to guide." "You cannot wait for the body to get there to start moving." "Really take, take" "With all that he will have learned between what he did as a child- and the classical ballet, and the work that he will do here and there at some point he'll probably come into having something, really, that he will form on his own." "Everything will come together as he will keep growing." "His ability to move and his choices on how to move should really bring something that, that is quite unique." "It was such an honor for Sy to be a part of opening night that Damian" "Woetzel planned for the Vail International Dance Festival." "I would like to welcome to the stage Philip Glass." "Thank you, Philip." "And now, "On the Other Side."" "Benjamin Millepied's piece, it's different." "It's kind of more like, loneliness?" "It's like a child's mind or something when he wakes up." "I can't really describe what it is supposed to be, but the steps just take me there and the music which I love-the combination just takes my body and my mind." "It's not like I have to really imagine, to see the sky, feel the water, move like a liquid." "I remember my first time going back home after being here a year and a half, people looked at me different, I look at things different." "I have different perspective." "And since then, this sensation, this perception stays in my mind and just keep building and building until it makes me like, a completely different being." "It's really tough sometimes when you want to let the folks back home know how you really feel and what you're really doing here and what things are." "Sometimes you just can't really say what you want to say or say whatever you feel like you should." "It doesn't matter if you're happy or you're unhappy." "I cannot really just share with people because that's the best way-to just to leave it there, because nothing's going to change anything, just leave it the way it is, you know?" "Try to have fun wherever you go I guess, whatever you do." "It's not really completely my own choice that I'm the person in this position-whatever you call, the lucky one." "Sometimes I feel like I don't want to be this person." "I want to just be free and whatever and do whatever I want to do." "But, sometimes you have got to do the right thing, not whatever you want to do." "Everybody here is hoping that I'll be somebody someday." "They're just happy that someone could get that kind of opportunity to be in the States." "One out of like you know, so it's a privilege." "Every time I come here I just have fun." "I don't feel like I'm really living here anymore." "And, over there" " I live there, but I don't feel like I belong there because it's, it's not the place where I grew up." "It's not-like, all my friends and parents are here, so, every day when I think about it, I, I really don't know where I belong." "But, at the same time, it's, it's really fun." "Kinda going back and forth and see the world." "And, I mean, if you live with people every day you get kind of bored, you know?" "So, in a way it's, it's, it's amazing." "I like, I like doing that." "But of course, you miss your friends, your family, things you used to do as a kid." "If you see talent of that magnitude, you have a choice-you walk out, or you can't." "Anne probably debated in her head many times to do or not to do." "To me, it's a special act of generosity." "She honestly believed at the moment she would contribute to the ballet what she loves with a passion." "I think I'm just very lucky." "I just was at that time, at that place, and I had a chance and opportunity to work with somebody who is that talented." "It happens once in a lifetime, so that was my chance."