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(Editor’s Note: The artists’ biographical profiles were taken from the 2009 NEA’s Fellowship Awardee Profiles.) 

Indian AmericanChitresh Das and Cambodian American Sophiline Cheam Shapiro were among 11 recipients of the prestigious 2009 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship. Considered one the highest forms of recognition of folk and traditional arts, recipients are selected for their artistic excellence and contribution to cultural preservation. Each recipient receives a one-time $25,000 grant to continue their work.

Das and Cheam Shapiro displayed their roots in classical dancing at the highly anticipated NEA concert ceremony at the Music Center at Strathmore on September 24, where recipients have the opportunity to perform their art.

Das is a “pandit” or master of Kathak, a classical dance originating in Northern India. The child of dance teachers, Das’s dance journey began at age nine under the direction of guru Ram Narayan Misra. Das’s mastery of Kathak’s highly rhythmic, rapid, and sensual elements is clear when he takes the stage.

His feet are like corn kernels popping at ten times the speed, accentuated by dizzying heel-kick turns one after the other.The ghungroo bells strapped around his ankles jangle in time to the rhythm of the tabla players, never missing a beat.

For Das, his performances are about a blending of the mind and body with the spirit of Lord Shiva, he said who is the “The king of dance with his snakes, his crescent moon, his nappy hair as he dances to the beautiful Parvati.”

But if the ridiculously frenzied pace of his solo movement weren’t enough, Das surprises the audience with a duet with African-American tap guru Jason Samuel s Smith.

The result is a collision of cultures, but of the best kind. It is a collision of classical and contemporary, India and America, ghungroos and tap shoes, an art form of the past reaching out to one in the present. It is also a stark demonstration of how Das has been able to keep an age old tradition alive and well, miles away from its heartland.

Das came to the United States in 1970 on a fellowship to study Western Dance and to teach Kathak. He has been an avid teacher, performer and creator ever since, beginning his own dance company Chhandam, which now has branches in the U.S. and abroad. Das has also developed productions such as East as Center and Indian Jazz Suites that showcase his intrigue with mixing different cultural dance styles together.

Shapiro

Cheam Shapiro equally shares her love of classical dance as a first generation graduate from the new Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. Cheam Shapiro immigrated to the U.S. in 1991, having lived through the violent rule of the Khmer Regime.

Her performance at Strathmore, in contrast to Das’s high energy display of footwork, is far slower, contemplative and abstract in its meaning. The dancers, adorned in the traditional apsara costumes, shine in golden head pieces and sparkling skirts.

Their movement is careful, every turn of the leg or movement of the head is synchronized. They are not worried about keeping to any particular beat as the Roneat chimes gently in the background. It is the story that is the most important as Cheam Shapiro later reveals.

The story is an interplay between the present, future and past, she explains. Two dancers dressed in gold represent the light or future and two dancers dressed in dark colors represent shadows or the past. Ning Omri is attracted to the light, but as she moves closer to the future, she is befallen by her shadow.

“She doesn’t like her shadow so, she tries to stop it from following her,” Cheam Shapiro says, “Unfortunately…it is impossible. In order to move forward we have to take everything with us even the things we don‘t like. The past is like an invisible bag we carry with us every day. In order to move forward we have to take that bag with us as a lesson to be avoided or to learn from.”

Like Das, Cheam Shapiro has also kept the 1000-year old classical Cambodian dance tradition alive in the U.S., starting her own company Dance Celeste, which tours worldwide and founding the Khmer Arts Academy in 2002, an organization dedicated to restoring Cambodian arts.

“I like to take contemporary issues and express them through a traditional form. I try to answer questions that relate to my own experience, the experiences of other Cambodians, Cambodian Americans, or anyone in the world,” she said.