Traditionally the New Year is celebrated with blessings that involve wiping powder on peoples faces and water fights while the hard working farmers take a moment to enjoy the fruits of their harvest and relax before the rainy season begins. Now as you can imagine, the celebrations are quite a bit different here in the States and abroad than they are in Cambodia but the partying is still there nonetheless. Here in Long Beach, the celebrations started with the 6th Annual Cambodian New Year Parade which took place on April 4th followed by the annual New Year Celebration at El Dorado Park on the 10th. Now normally I would have been out there documenting the celebrations with my camera, but this year I told myself to just simply enjoy the party instead of taking photos of everyone else enjoying it. But with that said, I couldn’t stop myself from snapping a few photos so here are some shots from the New Years Parade and a few more from KAA’s performance at El Dorado Park. Enjoy!

And as always, you can find the rest of the photos from KAA’s performance at SOJOURN FOTO’s Online Gallery.

Oh and before you go, be sure to visit my gallery here for the rest of the photos from the Culture Show!

And if you’d like to see the rest of the photos from Expulsion, you can find them here!

“Expulsion”, a new work from Heidi Duckler and Collage Dance Theatre will activate a vacant lot in Cambodia Town. Based on the themes of immigration and displacement, this cross-disciplinary site performance will explore the temporary, often fragile nature of “home.”

So I don’t want to spoil it for you but it’s definitely going to be something new and different if you’re expecting a traditional performance from KAA. Part of the collaboration between the Collage Dance Theatre and KAA was meant to push both groups to their creative boundaries as both groups had to be able to adapt to and create a new performance to fit not only fit the theme of Expulsion, but location and setting as well. So while you’ll probably recognize a lot of what’s taken from traditional Classical Cambodian Dance, this performance features new choreography that was created exclusively for Expulsion. I should also say that the new dance combined with the acrobatic performance of the Collage Dance Theatre should definitely keep you entertained. But that’s enough for me, on to the photos!

Anyways I hope you enjoyed that little sneak peak. If you want to see the rest of the performance in full you’ll have to show up to that nondescript vacant dirt lot on either March 19th or March 20th at 6 pm. For more information about Expulsion or the Collage Dance Theatre you can visit their site here or just take a look below.

Date: March 19th and 20th, 2011.
Time: 6:00 pm.
Location: 1546 E. Anaheim Street, Long Beach, CA 90813. At the intersection of Anaheim and Walnut across from Mark Twain Library.

Anyways, that’s enough talk about food for now. I promised some photos from Khmer Arts Academy’s opening performance for Dengue Fever’s opening show almost a month ago and I’m now finally getting around to posting them up. You’ll probably notice that I don’t have any photos from Dengue Fever’s actual performance and you’ll probably wonder why. The answer to that is pretty simple as the Halloween party we were planning to attend literally started right after KAA’s opening dance ended. Since the party was down in Long Beach near the Queen Mary and we were all the way up north in Santa Monica we didn’t get the chance to stick around and watch the show even though we really wanted to. Oh well, that’s how life goes sometimes. Anyways on with the show and on with the photos. Enjoy!

Oh and before you go. If you would like to see the rest of the photos from the performance you can find them at my online gallery here.

Now, Sophiline also happens to be Julie’s dance instructor and when she found out that they were asked to perform at the Fellowship Concert, I instantly knew that I wanted to be there to cover it. Fortunately I was given the okay to do so by John Shapiro, Sophiline’s husband, and before I knew it September 24th rolled around and I was winging my way east to Washington, DC for this special occasion. I can honestly say that it was an honor to see Sophiline Cheam Shapiro perform in person at such a special event and I will be forever grateful to have seen it.

Anyways, on to the photos. As you’ll see, I’m only posting the photos from Sophiline and Khmer Arts’ performance of “Shadow” during the concert here on my blog. The rest of the photos from the entire concert will be available at my online at my client print gallery here at the NEA Heritage Fellowships Concert Gallery. And as always, enjoy!

Event: National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowships Concert
Date: September 24, 2009
Venue: The Music Center at Strathmore
Location: North Bethesda, Maryland

Now before I jump ahead to the photos, I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Tean and Chanda as I am truly happy for them. Over the last 9 years that I’ve known Tean and Chanda they’ve been some of my closes friends who have always been there for me when I have needed them. And while I can tell you that words can’t describe what that truly means to me, I can tell you they have showed me what the true meaning of what friendship really is. And for that, I am truly thankful. Thanks guys.

To love, friendship and a long healthy life together. Congratulations once again Tean and Chanda! I hope you enjoy your photos!