Miro Dance Theater residency in Cambodia
Mar 7th, 2011 | By Steven Weisz | Category: Artist News
Philadephila’s Miro Dance Theater has embarked on an exciting residency in Cambodia. Artistic directors Amanda Miller and Tobin Rothlein founded Miro in order to realize their unique creative vision and explore the intersections of contemporary dance, video and visual art. Miller has twenty years of performance experience including ten years as a dancer at the Pennsylvania Ballet. Rothlein works as an international video artist and visual designer. Together they are plunging into the worlds of traditional Khmer dance and contemporary video AND PERFORMANCE art in Phnom Penh.
Miller is working with Sophiline Cheam-Shapiro and the Khmer Arts Ensemble. As part of her practice, Miller is learning Khmer dance technique, wearing the typical dance uniform and taking on the challenge of learning to dance to the traditional pin-peat percussion orchestra. In exchange, Miller is teaching the Khmer Arts dancers the basics of Western classical, modern, and improvisational dance techniques. Miller and Cheam-Shapiro are also collaborating on a dance duet utilizing both Khmer and Western dance techniques that will be performed at the end of the residency. Miller’s residency activities have been supported by The Pew Center For Arts and Heritage through Dance Advance.
While Miller dances, co-director Rothlein will have two gallery openings in Phnom Penh. The first is a solo show, ISOLATIONS, at MetaHouse gallery and the second a group show with Rothlein and two cambodian artists (Samnang Khvay and sochanlina lim) at SaSa gallery. Video and performance art are still relatively new concepts in Cambodia and Rothlein is happy to be sharing his work there. Rothlein is also leading a workshop with a focus on video and performance art. During these workshops artists are learning to press boundaries by focusing on concept while incorporating the body into their work
You can find out more about Miro’s adventures in Cambodia on the Miro website:
http://www.mirodancetheatre.org/
and on their personal blogs:
http://amanda-miller.net/
http://www.tobinrothlein.com/
