26-09-2009Actual Dance in Cambodia

The following series of photographs by Nicolas Havette were taken during the rehearsal of an intercultural dance collaboration between Chumvan Sodhachivy, a Cambodian dance who specializes in the Apsara dance style, and the French dancer/choreographer Sébastien Ramirez. The performers were brought together in the context of the Phnom Penh Hip Hop Festival and had a week to prepare the piece. The concept of superimposed images came initially as a response to a technical lighting constraint before permeating the entire series. To Havette, this was a reminder that technical constraints can often be the source of artistic creation. “This may be somewhat of a modernist approach to photography” remarks Havette, “but I think (photographic) technique should be considered a creative source that has equal bearing on the meaning of the work.” All images © copyright of Nicolas Havette.

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About the Photographer
Nicolas Havette trained at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie d’Arles, France. Since 2003, he has presented work at a range of international events including Nuit Blanche in Paris, the Angkor festival of photography in Cambodia, the Arles International Photography Festival and more. In 2006, he was appointed ‘Professor of photography’ for the department of media in the Afghan Parliament in Kabul.

  • I enjoyed this unique style of photography of one of Cambodia's greatest dance assets, Belle. She is an incredibly talented freestyle dancer who is pushing the boundaries of contemporary dance in Cambodia despite the restrictions that face all new style performers. The country is only just waking up to new forms of art and culture and Belle is at the cutting edge of that. You can still see the influences of classical ballet that course through hers, and all dancers, veins, in some of the photos here.