Among my photographs of the dance classes at KID, there was not a single one of the woman responsible for organising them. I was only there for half an hour, and she might have been having lunch! However, her palpable presence is there in every picture. And it prompted me to contact her family, to find out more about Mme. Mom Kamel.

I heard from her daughter Connie that she had passed away in 2006. She and her family were only in Khao I Dang camp for one year. They arrived in the USA in November 1980, settled first in Brooklyn, New York, and then moved to Washington State. Mme. Mom Kamel connected with HRH Norodom Buppha Devi in the early 1980s and performed with her in Washington DC.

 

Mom Kamel was introduced to Cambodian classical dance at an early age by her godmother who was working in in the royal household. At the age of seven, she was picked by Her Majesty Queen Kossamak to train as a dancer. When she was twelve, she performed for the first time for royal families, diplomats, and heads of state from various countries. At eighteen, she was touring abroad with the Royal Ballet to France, East Germany, Egypt, the Soviet Union, China, India, Indonesia and Singapore. At 22, Mme Kamel was granted the title of Dance Master by Queen Kossamak.  As a Dance Master, she was commonly referred to as ‘Neak Kru Savang’ and continued teaching until the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975. During the Pol Pot regime, Mme Kamel and her family became forced labourers and survived by hiding their true names and saying they were fruit farmers. 

In 1979, Mme Kamel and her family fled to Khao I Dang, where she began to revive the dying art form. She searched the camp for potential talent, bringing in girls for tests, many still weak from malnutrition. “I know what kind of child can dance,” she said. She looked first for ‘charm’, then put them through a drill of dance positions. “Sometimes the charm is not so good but the body is good.” She picked children of eight or nine, and some older. Out of 300 applicants, she selected 67 younger girls and 35 aged 14 up, a dozen of whom had experience of dancing before the Pol Pot time*. She often said:“This method of dance, slow and gentle, is Cambodia’s soul. If we lose the dance, we lose the soul of Cambodia.” 

Mme. Mom Kamel’s last performance was in 1986. After that, she dedicated the rest of her life to the practice of Buddhism. She had students living across the globe, in France, the United States, Canada and Australia, and a few are still teaching and/or performing. Connie followed the family tradition of dancing and has been teaching the classical dance for the past 35 years or more, passing it down to her children and other Cambodian children. She and her mother went back to Cambodia and were able to reconnect with a few dance masters, such as Em Theay, as well as HRH Princess Norodom Buppha Devi in 1993.

(Thanks to Connie Mom-Chhing & *Seth Mydans for information above on Mme. Mom Kamel)