Khmer social dances

Khmer social dances are the dances Cambodians share as guests at weddings and Cambodian New Year gatherings, and after a day's work. Among them are romvong (រាំវង់), rom kbach (រាំក្បាច់), saravan (សារ៉ាវ៉ាន់) and lam leav (ឡាំលាវ), danced at weddings and parties. Khmer writers group them with the folk dances (របាំប្រជាប្រិយ), apart from the more formal Cambodian classical dance. Across Cambodia they are danced alongside dances from abroad.

Illustration inspired by a village wedding party's dance floor at dusk.

Tradition details
Also known as	Cambodian social dances
Practice type	Performing art
Usual occasion	Weddings; Cambodian New Year; parties
Subjects	Dance & Theatre; Celebrations & Life Passages

Romvong (រាំវង់)

Romvong is danced in a ring that moves counter-clockwise. The dancers go round in pairs, a woman in front and a man behind, about a table of flowers set in the middle of the floor. The circle moves slowly to a languid beat, and the dancers move their hands gracefully. In the countryside the dance is also called lam thoun (ឡាំថូន), after the drum that keeps its beat, and a small band of fiddle, hand drum and singers plays for it.

Duncan Stuart, a guest at a wedding reception in Siem Reap in 2011, wrote that romvong was the music that brought everyone onto the dance floor, and that strangers waved him into the circle. He heard a slow beat over a steady bass guitar, with a keyboard often playing the part of the wooden xylophone.

The Cambodian heritage site AMS Khmer Civilization and the radio station VAYO FM describe romvong as an old dance tied to Khmer ceremonies. VAYO FM adds that it became a popular dance across Cambodian society later, and that Khmer, Lao and Siamese dance shaped one another, above all in the border areas where the peoples live side by side.

Kaliane Bradley of Springback Magazine calls romvong and saravan the traditional social dances, and describes both as dances of graceful bearing, careful gestures of the hands and wrists, and placed steps. The dance scenes of Norodom Sihanouk's 1969 film La Joie de Vivre set them aside for hip-swinging dances in couples.

Rom kbach (រាំក្បាច់)

Rom kbach is danced in a circle like romvong, with slower and gentler movements. VAYO FM counts romvong and rom kbach as the Khmers' own base dances.

Saravan (សារ៉ាវ៉ាន់)

Saravan is a dance for partners, not a circle. The two face each other, and as one takes four steps forward the other steps back, and they move back and forth. Saravan is the name of a province of Laos that borders Attapeu, not far from Stung Treng. VAYO FM counts saravan and lam leav as Lao influences that Cambodians took up from their neighbors.

Lam leav (ឡាំលាវ)

Lam leav is danced in a circle like romvong and rom kbach, to a faster rhythm, with gestures of the hands and feet of its own. In VAYO FM's account, to dance lam leav is to dance in the Lao manner, without copying it exactly.

Teaching and the diaspora

In early 2023 the Royal University of Fine Arts ran a free public course in folk dance, and nearly 100 people aged 16 to 40 enrolled. A second course was set to run from January 20 to February 24, 2024. Chen Borey of the university's Faculty of Choreographic Arts said the aim was for Khmer people to know how to dance their folk dances properly.

In 2023 Khmer Maine ran a series of social dance classes for all ages in Maine, taught by the dancer Sokheun Sok and timed to end before Khmer New Year in April. The Khmer Community of Seattle King County scheduled Reatrei Romvong as the last item of its Khmer New Year event on April 6, 2024, a night when elders share Khmer food and dance with young volunteers and staff.

References