UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL
CENTER FOR LOWELL HISTORY
HUY, PHOUSITA S. CAMBODIAN ART, DANCE AND CULTURE VIDEO COLLECTION, CIRCA 1984-2003
UML 6
EXTENT: 120 GB
ABSTRACT:
The Phousita S. Huy collection contains digital versions of master dance teacher Phousita S. Huy’s videotape collection documenting Cambodian classical and folk dance performances between 1984-2003. Contents include amateur and professional video recordings. Dance performers include students from the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) in Cambodia, the Angkor Dance Troupe in Lowell, Massachusetts, and the Dance Troupe of Cambodian American Heritage in Fort Washington, Maryland. Also included are recordings about Angkor Wat, traditional Cambodian kite making and cultural performances at festivals as well as interviews with master teachers.
Select video recordings are available for viewing: https://umlseada.omeka.net/collections/show/10.
Phousita Serey Huy was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 1967, and was the youngest of four children in her family. From an early age she watched public performances of royal court ballet with her mother. She attended a dance school for approximately one year before the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975.
Huy was reunited with her family after the Khmer Rouge in 1979. She moved back to Phnom Penh where she pursued dance and in 1980, was admitted to the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) in Phnom Penh. She has since toured several countries including Vietnam, North and South Korea, Japan, America, Laos, Thailand, and India. Huy taught royal court ballet at RUFA to youth of all ages before moving to the United States in 1996.
Huy is currently artistic director at Angkor Dance Troupe, Inc. in Lowell, Massachusetts. She is an internationally recognized master performer and instructor of Cambodian classical dance.
Information was gathered from conversations with Huy; the Angkor Dance Troupe website (https://www.angkordance.org/); the Angkor Dance Troupe, Inc. Collection, 1991-2017. UML 5. at the Center for Lowell History; and the Huy oral history, Lowell Historical Society, #01.22, where she recounts her experiences of living under the Khmer Rouge, her return the Phnom Penh, studying at the Royal University of Fine Arts, and travelling and performing in different countries.
Sources for more information:
Cravath, Paul. Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama. Florida: DatASIA, 2007.
Suon, Chummeng, Documentary on Phousita Huy, 2018-2019.
The Phousita S. Huy collection contains digital versions of master dance teacher Phousita S. Huy’s videotape collection documenting Cambodian classical and folk dance performances between 1984-2003. Contents include amateur and professional video recordings. Dance performers include students from the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) in Cambodia, the Angkor Dance Troupe in Lowell, Massachusetts, and the Dance Troupe of Cambodian American Heritage in Fort Washington, Maryland. Also included are recordings about Angkor Wat, traditional Cambodian kite making and cultural performances at festivals as well as interviews with master teachers.
The video collection was collected and video recordings created during Huy’s active years as an instructor. A number of the VHS tapes contain multiple recordings and therefore the digital files created from these tapes reflect these multiple recordings. Several of the recordings are of Angkor Dance Troupe, Inc. student practices and performances during Huy’s tenure as artistic director. Other recordings are of student final exams at RUFA. A few recordings are social gatherings of dancers, various dance performances, interviews with master dance teachers, and documentaries with master dance teacher interviews and about Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Also included in the collection are several videos where content remains unidentified.
For a listing of related collections at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and elsewhere, please visit: https://www.uml.edu/Research/SEA-digital-archive/related-collections.aspx.
The Huy oral history (#01.22) at the Lowell Historical Society is accessible on-site at the Center for Lowell History.
For more information about the SEADA, please visit our home page at www.uml.edu/seada, or email us at seada@uml.edu.
