Creator

Charya Burt

Charya Burt is a dancer, choreographer and teacher of Cambodian classical dance in California.[1][2] She is the founding artistic director at Charya Burt Cambodian Dance.[3]

A pointed gilded dance crown on a cloth-covered stand, a length of gold and plum silk folded on a low wooden bench, a brass bowl of jasmine buds and paper fans on pale wooden floorboards, with a long wall mirror and tall windows onto green trees
Illustration inspired by a dance studio set for a Cambodian classical dance class

Training and early career

In Phnom Penh, Burt studied at the Royal University of Fine Arts. Accounts place the start of her training after the Khmer Rouge (ខ្មែរក្រហម) period and date it to 1982.[3][2] Her faculty service is dated to 1989 to 1992, with an alternative appointment date of 1990, when she received her teaching certificate.[3][2]

Her master teacher’s name is spelled Soth Som Onn and Soth Sam On; he appears correcting her movement in a 1992 training photograph.[2][4] She performed with Cambodia’s Royal Dance Troupe before emigrating to the United States in 1993.[3][5]

Teaching in California

Burt has taught and performed in Santa Rosa and the San Francisco Bay Area since her 1993 move.[2][5] In 2017, she mentored Ryan Rithea Boun through the Alliance for California Traditional Arts apprenticeship program.[2]

Work and recognition

Her dance theater work The Rebirth of Apsara was staged at Chenla Theatre in Phnom Penh on December 20, 2025.[4] She received a 2022 Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities.[6][1]

References 6
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Dance Enthusiast, DANCE NEWS: Americans for the Arts Honors Dance Artists Charya Burt & Christopher “Mad Dog” Thomas with Annual Johnson Fellowship (January 13, 2022)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Charya Cheam Burt (undated)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Charya Burt Cambodian Dance, Biography (undated)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Dancers' Group (In Dance), The Rebirth of Apsara (April 16, 2026)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Dancers' Group (In Dance), Innovative Artist and Traditional Teacher: the Passions of Cambodian Choreographer Charya Burt (November 1, 2017)
  6. ↑ Healdsburg Tribune, Windsor resident wins fellowship for work with Cambodian dance (January 25, 2022)


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This page was last edited on 14 November 2026, at 17:25.