Serei Van Kosaun

I began training at nine. I was shy, but traditional music made me want to move; once I heard it, the wish to dance was stronger than my shyness.

No single teacher made me: many did. Each teacher refined something different, and those lessons have become part of how I understand movement and how I teach it.

After more than two decades, I cannot reduce that journey to a complete list, nor would I want a short list to suggest that some teachers mattered while others did not. Three names within that much larger circle are the late Om Yukvanna, Ouk Solichumnith of the Department of Performing Arts, and Chey Chankethya, recently appointed director of the Secondary School of Fine Arts. My closest bonds with teachers remain personal.

That attention to repetition is at the centre of my work. Cambodian classical dance asks for patience, detail and a willingness to return to the same movement with a more attentive body.

My formal education grew alongside that practice. I completed a bachelor’s degree in classical dance choreography at the Royal University of Fine Arts and a bachelor’s degree in education at the Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh. Since 2017, the Royal University of Fine Arts has also been my place of work.

In 2018, Princess Norodom Buppha Devi entrusted me with one of the two principal roles in Neang Wadhana Devi — Metamorphosis — her final work. Her trust remains part of how I understand my responsibility to the dance and to the teachers who carried it forward.

The story also gave me lessons beyond performance: the importance of trust, perseverance, forgiveness, respect and accepting another person as they are. It asks us to think carefully instead of allowing jealousy or provocation to decide for us.

The years of creation and rehearsal became part of The Perfect Motion (ទេពហត្ថា), Xavier de Lauzanne’s documentary about the work and the longer history of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia. I appear in the film as a dancer and interview participant.

At the Royal University of Fine Arts, my work extends beyond performance. I have helped research, record and compile material on Cambodian classical dance with senior teachers, learning from both their knowledge and their memories.

I have also demonstrated historical gestures and costumes in public scholarship, including the Center for Khmer Studies presentation King Sisowath’s Dancers: Moving Archives and Embodied History.

Preservation is active work. The dance must be performed, taught and documented, but people also need opportunities to learn its roots through research, workshops and close attention to the practice.

Since joining the university in 2017, my work has also included arts administration and international relations. Today I help facilitate collaborations that give students space to share, exchange and encounter different artistic perspectives, both locally and across cultures.

In 2022, I joined Cambodian Living Arts’ Curatorial Fellowship and helped shape its 2023 Cultural Season. The experience extended my work into programme selection, artist dialogue and thinking about how traditional performance can meet new audiences.

In 2025 I completed Choreomundus, the international master’s programme in dance knowledge, practice and heritage, on an Erasmus Mundus scholarship. I chose the programme because it studies dance as intangible cultural heritage across anthropology, heritage studies and technology. It further shaped my interest in cultural practices and the place they hold within communities.

I teach children from the age of nine, adults at every level and visiting dancers. Lessons are available in Khmer or English, either in Phnom Penh or live online.

The first aim is not to rush through shapes. It is to build a clear foundation that can support expression, repertoire and confident practice over time.