Though not proven, it is widely believed that the inspiration for Cambodian dance stems from one of the great epic poems of India called Ramayana. A 24,000-couplet poem, it tells the tale of Prince Rama, whose stepmother, upon his father's death, banished him so her own son could seize the throne. Accompanied by his wife, Sita, he accepted his banishment out of respect for his father's widow and elder. As the legend swept across southeast Asia, it was supposedly set to music and movement, and led to the evolution of Cambodian dance.
Under the reign of King Jayavarman II (founder of the powerful Khmer Empire that spanned the 9th to 13th centuries), Cambodian dance became a standard in court life. According to AllCambodia.com, females, (typically from the upper echelons of society), outnumbered male performers. In addition, a woman's physique often dictated the role she would play. For example, tall women typically played heroic male roles while shorter women with sinewy muscles took on the roles of ogres and villains. In these early days, male dancers were rare, and usually occupied the roles of fools and jesters when they did participate.
During King Jayavarman's rule, it is estimated that 3,000 dancers worked in the court, entertaining dignitaries and visiting nobles, according to TourismCambodia.com.
At the heart of Cambodian dance is Apsara, a type of dance whose movements exist today in the form of carvings on ancient palaces and statues. According to NewWorldEncyclopedia.org, "Apsara" is a word of Sanskrit origin and means "woodland spirit" or "nymph." Sinuous, unfurling movements are hallmarks of Apsara, along with flexed palms that seem to press on an invisible wall, as well as one leg raised, bent at the knee with foot flexed, allowing the dancer to exhibit poise and balance.
In a 1906 exhibition in Marseilles, France, Augusta Rodin--the famous sculpture whose study of the human form was epitomized in "The Thinker"--witnessed a troupe performing Apsara, and he marveled that it was "impossible to see human nature carried to such perfection," according to WisdomPortal.com.
According to Dr. Paul Cravath (author of "Earth in Flower--The Divine Myster of the Cambodian Dance Drama"), Apsara dance was also traditionally a moving prayer ritual. Monarchs of Cambodia annually appealed to the heavens for aid whenever floods, drought, war or disease plagued the land. During such sacrosanct rituals, dancers were considered seraphic messengers. Their every move was a supplication for divine intervention.
As the Vietnam War came to an end, genocide swept through Cambodia. According to the Killing Field's Museum in Seattle, Washington, intellectuals and artists were especially persecuted during the 1975 to 1979 murderous rampage, performers and teachers of the ancient dances included. Those who were not executed fled the country. When the horror finally ended, those seeking to revive the art form trekked to neighboring Thailand and Vietnam in order to interview those familiar with the dance rituals, so that tradition might endure. The damage, however, had been done, and many meanings and movements of Cambodian dance were lost.
Since the 1980s, there has been a crusade to rediscover Cambodian dance, according to such tourism bureaus such as ToThailand.com. Part of this revival actually started around 1967 when Princess Buppha Devi, encouraged by her mother, Queen Kossomak, became one of the first modern-day pundits of the art, taking the dance beyond the world of the royal courts and to natives and foreigners alike. In 1995, the country held another public exhibition of what has been recovered of the dance, in hopes of revitalizing the dance and the artistic integrity that once thrived in a country so recently beleaguered by violence.