Choreographing neutrality: Dance in Cambodia’s Cold War diplomacy in Asia, 1953-1970

• Main Author: ESPENA Darlene Machell
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: Cultural diplomacy; neutrality; Cold War; Norodom Sihanouk; Cambodian dance; Asian Studies; South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies; Theatre and Performance Studies
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3926; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5184/viewcontent/ChoreographingDance_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This article examines the role of dance in Cambodia’s Cold War diplomacy in Asia from 1953 up until the establishment of the Khmer Republic in 1970. It explores how Sihanouk leveraged Cambodian dances to enact Cambodia’s neutral stance during the Cold War and forge cordial relations with other Asian states. Through an examination of the myriad of dance performances of the Royal Ballet and other Khmer dance troupes within the context of Cambodia’s diplomatic relations in Asia, this paper demonstrates how dance afforded a space for Inter-Asia referencing amidst the Cold War tension in the region. Premised on an interdisciplinary approach, this paper underscores dance as an active political space where two historical phenomena merged: decolonisation/nation-building and the Cold War. In doing so, it places dance as inevitably entangled with diplomatic history and sheds light on its role in reifying the newly constructed, albeit nebulous, national identity of postcolonial Cambodia.