Angkor Dance Troupe

The Drive to Preserve Traditions

The Angkor Dance Troupe was formed in 1986, in Lowell, MA, by Mr. Tim Chan Thou, Angkor's Program Director, along with a small group of dancers who learned traditional Cambodian dance in refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border. They brought with them to the United States a strong desire to practice and perform Cambodian dance and a passion to teach others.

Dance and its associated rituals and beliefs have become a way for Cambodian people to reconstruct a sense of community and culture, particularly for refugees who have resettled in other countries. Between 1975 and 1979, when Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge controlled Cambodia, more than 90% of the country's artists perished or fled. Today as Cambodia struggles to emerge from decades of war and poverty, the people look to the rebirth and recreation of dance as testimony to the endurance of their culture.