Seasons of Migration

Seasons of Migration is a dance about culture shock, and the film combines the performance with the choreographer’s and dancer’s commentary, and stories of the troubles and triumphs of Cambodians who emigrated to Long Beach, California. Sophiline Cheam Shapiro grew up in Pol Pot’s camps; as a teenager she trained as a Cambodian classical dancer, later emigrating to the United States where she continued her dance studies at UCLA and began choreographing work that used the idioms and vocabulary of the Cambodia court dance to explore contemporary themes. She settled in Long Beach, the largest Cambodian city outside Cambodia, and founded the Khmer Arts Academy. Her work has toured in the US and Europe. This dance work, performed by dancers from Cambodia, made a ten city tour of the US.