Creator

Sisowath Kossamak

Cambodian queen credited with choreographing the modern apsara dance and sustaining the royal dance troupe.

Sisowath Kossamak (ស៊ីសុវត្ថិ កុសុមៈ) was a Cambodian queen who revived the royal dance troupe and shaped its modern repertoire.[1] She took personal charge of the troupe and is credited with choreographing the apsara dance, drawing its poses from Angkorian temple reliefs.[1] She reigned with her husband from 1955 to 1960, and after his death she reigned as "Supreme Guardian" until the 1970 coup abolished the monarchy.[2][3] She died in 1975.[1][3]

Royal dance

After Norodom Sihanouk's coronation in April 1941, Kossamak, then a princess, set out to keep the ballet troupe alive and restore its former prestige.[1] Seven elderly women who had once been principal dancers were given apartments in the Royal Palace, and they agreed to teach their traditions and skills to younger dancers. Training resumed, a troupe of 48 dancers came together, and women of the palace sewed replacements for at least 14 worn-out costumes.[1] By 1965 the company had 300 classical dance teachers and 500 students, drawn from all walks of life and not only from palace families. She also invited private troupes formed in the provinces and in the city, and she gave them her support.[1]

A woman in a white blouse and dark sampot stands between palace pillars, holding an offering, with seated women nearby.
Queen Sisowath Kossamak in a 1965 United States Information Agency film on the Royal Ballet of Cambodia.

Kossamak personally oversaw the removal of foreign influences from the costumes, props and choreography. She moved performances that had used one or two characters in small rooms onto the scale of a theater, and she divided the all-night performances of the Khmer epic, the Reamker (រាមកេរ្តិ៍), into sequences that could be danced on their own.[1] In 1950 the ballets Ream Leak-Chhup Leak and Makara went through a full revision. For Apsara (អប្សរា), in which five dancers step down from an Angkorian bas-relief, she reproduced the hairstyles, jewelry and poses on the walls of Angkor Wat with strict care.[1] The Angkor Database booklet dates Apsara to 1962, and an Asian Theatre Journal article quoted by Cambodianess gives the same year.[1][4] She took a personal hand in training her granddaughter, Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, who became the troupe's principal dancer and danced the lead role in Apsara.[1]

Some popular performance forms may also owe their survival to her, since she had them recognized by the University or the Conservatory.[1] The architect Vann Molyvann credited her with gradually renewing traditional dance technique and with modern staging and lighting. The booklet credits her with saving the choreographic tradition and with inventing modern ballet.[1]

Queen

In 1955 she took the throne alongside King Norodom Suramarit under the name Sisowath Kossamak Nearyrath, and she shared royal duties with him until 1960.[1][2] King Norodom Sihamoni's website gives her name as Preah Sisowath Monivong Kossamak Nearyroth Serey Vaddana.[5] As queen she received foreign guests. In November 1958 the King and Queen received a Chinese delegation with Zhang Xi and gave a banquet to welcome it, as the papers of Marshal Chen Yi record.[6][7] After her husband died in 1960, she reigned for ten years as "Supreme Guardian" while Sihanouk served as chief of state.[3] She held that place until the 1970 coup ended the monarchy.[3]

After the coup she spent three years in virtual house arrest as her health declined, and then she was allowed to join Sihanouk in exile in Beijing.[3] The Angkor Database booklet dates her departure to November 3, 1973, and Encyclopedia.com to November 5.[1][2] She died there on April 27, 1975, of apparent heart disease.[1][3]

Works


See also

References 7
  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 Angkor Database, Le Ballet Royal (The Royal Ballet)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Encyclopedia.com, Kossamak (r. 1955–1960) (2025)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Time, Milestones, May 12, 1975
  4. ↑ Cambodianess, Remembering Princess Buppha Devi (November 20, 2019)
  5. ↑ Website of King Norodom Sihamoni, Memorial Service to Her Majesty Preah Kossamak (April 9, 2009)
  6. ↑ Fudan University Library Special Collections, Marshal Chen Yi papers, subject Cambodia (items dated November 1958)
  7. ↑ Fudan University Library Special Collections, photograph record of the banquet for the delegation (November 1958)
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This page was last edited on 27 October 2026, at 04:38.