The incident took place in broad daylight around 10 miles (16 kilometers) from a conference center hosting a meeting of G7 ministers, but officials said they had no evidence of a link to the event.

Police arrested a suspect at the scene, but said it was too soon to say whether the attack in Toronto — which has a population of about 2.8 million people — had been deliberate, and if so, what the driver’s motivation might have been.

“This is going to be a complex investigation,” deputy police chief Peter Yuen told reporters. “We have one person in custody and the investigation is ongoing.”

“We can confirm for you tonight right now we have nine people that are dead, 16 injured.”

At the scene, an AFP reporter saw at least three bodies under orange sheets and a long stretch of road sealed off with police incident tape.

Dan Cass of Sunnybrook hospital said 10 injured people had been brought in. Two of them were pronounced dead on arrival and five were in critical condition.

Television images showed the man and a police officer facing off, their guns drawn. The suspect eventually surrendered his weapon and was taken into custody.

Vehicle attacks have been carried out to deadly effect by extremists in a number of capitals and major cities, including London, Paris, New York and Nice, heightening fears of a deliberate ramming.

Canada’s minister for public safety, Ralph Goodale was asked at the G7 meeting whether the government had received any threats or information to suggest that the talks might be targeted.

“No, not to my knowledge,” he said.

Standing alongside him, Canada’s foreign minister Chrystia Freeland said the G7 meeting would continue as planned into Tuesday, with officials discussing ways to secure democratic societies from foreign interference.

“The work of the ministers obviously goes on. This is a very sad day for the people of Toronto and the people of Canada,” she said.

– ‘Really fast’ –

Officers were called to the scene — on Yonge Street at the corner with Finch Avenue — at about 1:30 pm (1730 GMT), police said.

A white rental van with a dented front bumper was stopped on the sidewalk of a major intersection, surrounded by police vehicles.

“He was going really fast,” witness Alex Shaker told CTV television.

“All I could see was just people one by one getting knocked out, knocked out, one by one,” Shaker said. “There are so many people lying down on the streets.”

Another witness, Jamie Eopni, told local Toronto television station CP24: “It was crashing into everything. It destroyed a bench. If anybody was on that street, they would have been hit on the sidewalk.”

– ‘It’s frightening’ –

Canada has only rarely been the scene of terror attacks.

In October, a man stabbed a police officer in the western city of Edmonton before slamming his van into a group of pedestrians, injuring four people.

And in Quebec in October 2014, a Canadian man ran over two soldiers in a parking lot with his car, killing one of them. The driver was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.

In March 2016, a Canadian who claimed to have radical Islamist sympathies attacked two soldiers at a military recruitment center in Toronto.

Thirty-two Chinese tourists and four North Koreans perished in the accident south of the capital Pyongyang Sunday night, Chinese officials and state media said. Two other Chinese nationals were injured.

In a rare admission of negative news from North Korea’s tightly-controlled propaganda network, the state-run KCNA news agency ran a report early Tuesday saying Kim met personally with the Chinese ambassador in Pyongyang and later visited crash survivors in hospital.

“He (Kim) said that the unexpected accident brought bitter sorrow to his heart and that he couldn’t control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives,” KCNA reported.

The agency quoted the North Korean leader as saying his people “take the tragic accident as their own misfortune”.

Xinhua news agency reported that the bus had fallen from a bridge in North Hwanghae province.

China’s state broadcaster showed images of a large overturned vehicle, with light rain falling on rescue vehicles at night and doctors attending to a patient.

KCNA said the crash was “an unexpected traffic accident that claimed heavy causalities among Chinese tourists”. It gave no breakdown on the numbers killed or injured.

The vast majority of foreign tourists to North Korea are Chinese, with the Cold War-era allies sharing a long land border and operating flights between the two countries.

Western visitors to the North once averaged around 5,000 a year, but numbers have been hit recently by a US travel ban — Americans accounted for around 20 percent of the market — and official warnings from other countries.

Tens of thousands of Chinese tourists are believed to visit the North every year, with many crossing via train through the Chinese border city of Dandong.

For some, North Korea provides a window into what Communist China may have looked like decades ago.

Chinese tourism to the North has continued even though Beijing has enforced a slew of United Nations sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

Despite those sanctions, it remains North Korea’s sole ally, providing an important economic and political buffer against international opprobrium.

‘All necessary means’

President Xi Jinping urged China’s foreign ministry and embassy in North Korea to take “all necessary means” to handle the accident, and called for an “all-out” effort to help the injured and deal with the deceased, according to Xinhua.

North Hwanghae province lies south of Pyongyang and stretches to the border with South Korea. It includes the city of Kaesong, an ancient Korean capital with historical sites.

More recently, the area hosted a manufacturing complex operated with the South.

The tour group was travelling by bus from Kaesong to Pyongyang when the accident happened, according to the independent Seoul-based website NK News, which cited an unnamed source.

North Korean roads are largely poor and potholed, and in many areas they are dirt rather than tarmac. Vehicles are sometimes forced to ford rivers or take detours when bridges are unpassable.

But the route from Pyongyang to Kaesong, where the accident reportedly happened, is one of the best in the country.

It runs north-south from the Chinese border to the Demilitarized Zone on the border with South Korea but has little traffic, like all North Korean highways.

Tank traps have been installed along the road in many locations — sets of high concrete columns on either side of the road that can easily be blown up to create an obstruction for invading armoured vehicles.

“Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 11:01 (1001 GMT),” the palace said in a statement. The baby boy weighs eight pounds and seven ounces (3.8 kilogrammes).

People look at portraits of S-21 inmates at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh in 2014. Eli Meixler

​​​​​​​The woman was the wife of a Khmer Rouge officer who fell out of favour, and one of the thousands of prisoners at S-21 whose photograph was taken on arrival at the infamous torture centre.

Shortly afterwards, her baby was taken from her and killed. The portrait is among dozens of S-21 photographs for sale by at least two international stock-image companies. For $199.99 a business can purchase this image of the mother and her baby from UK-based photo site Alamy for use in a “marketing package”. The webpage notes that no model release form was signed by the subject of the image.

Alamy is not alone – at least one other company, US-based Sprague Photo Stock, is also selling S-21 prisoner intake portraits on its website.

Regional magazine Mekong Review first called attention to the sale of the portraits on Tuesday, and in several tweets called into question the practice of selling the images for commercial use on legal and moral grounds.

“These portraits were taken by Khmer Rouge cadres, before they tortured and killed these people. This is wrong,” they wrote on Twitter.

The photos being sold on both stock-image sites appear to have come from photographers who took them while inside the museum where the images are displayed. The museum forbids visitors from capturing any pictures while inside the former prison, and it is unclear if the photographers were visiting with press permissions.

The director of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Chhay Visoth, said he was not previously aware that these photographs were being sold online.

“Selling or using the victim’s pictures for commercial purposes is legally and morally unacceptable because they were already victimised in that regime, and they should not be victimised again by such selfish purposes,” Visoth said.

Youk Chhang, the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, and a Khmer Rouge survivor himself, said in a message to The Post that the sale of the photographs “is very perplexing”.

“It is a memory of the nation and should be properly used with respect.”

Youk noted that these photographs have been copied and disseminated widely for educational purposes, in part to keep the memory of victims alive.

“Documents and photographs of the regime have been duplicated and flooded across the globe because we as the victims want to tell the world of the millions of Cambodians who have perished brutally under the Khmer Rouge. And we want justice for both those who have passed away and those who have survived the regime,” he said.

Nonetheless, who uses the photos, and for what purpose, is a major concern. As an example of proper use, Youk cited his own organisation’s archive of S-21 prisoner photographs, created with permission.

Neither Alamy nor Sprague responded to requests for comment, though the former appeared to be in the process of removing the photographs from its site on Friday. One of the photographers that Alamy credits for the S-21 prisoner portraits, John Lander, said via email that he would take the image down as it “shows peoples’ faces – which I can well imagine are sensitive to some people”.

A screenshot from the Alamy website featuring S-21 prisoner portraits.

This isn’t the first time the question of ownership of these harrowing photographs has been raised.

The original photographer who took many of the portraits, a former low-ranking Khmer Rouge cadre, is still alive and contends the rights should be his. Nhem En, now 58, worked as a photographer for three years at S-21, and it was his job to capture images of the prison’s detainees.

“I took those pictures so the copyright should belong to me, but copyright just does not matter in Cambodia,” he said. “My pictures are used by media all over the world, but no one give me credit for that. Foreigners may not know about me, but the government should do something about it.”

According to a 2001 sub-decree, the Cambodian government has legal control over the images to protect them from exactly this sort of misuse. The sub-decree extends to historical documents – maps, blueprints and photos, for example – that it describes as “priceless assets of the country for generations”.

Museum Director Visoth cited this ownership arrangement in an email to The Post, saying that to publish the images a person “must submit a request to MoC [Ministry of Culture], informing them how they will be used and agreeing not to give them to anyone without permission”. In that instance, the credit for the photograph would go to the museum.

When reached for comment, Culture Ministry spokesman Thai Norak Satya called the issue “a very small matter” and did not appear to know for sure which entity retains legal control, by way of copyright, of the S-21 images.

Visoth said he would study further what might be done to address the situation. “No matter what,” he said, “we will show the willingness for negotiation and ask the sellers to stop doing that.”

“If they won’t,” he said, “we will monitor our capacity for legal enforcement.”

Mekong Review founding editor and publisher Minh Bui Jones said it was clear the agencies are “treading on thin ice, both legally and ethically”, and questioned if the images would be up for sale if they depicted victims from a Western country.

“If anyone owns them, it’s the people of Cambodia. If those companies had sought and were given permission by the Cambodian government to sell them, then they’re legally clear,” he said. “But if they haven’t, then they’re simply thieves, or grave robbers. You can’t sink any lower than this.”

The film crew behind 22 Minutes, which is reportedly inspired by the Thamrin attack two years ago, has been shooting scenes involving critical explosions and a shoot-out at the intersection in front of Sarinah department store since April 14.

To secure the area, the Jakarta Police closed Jl. M.H. Thamrin from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The closure will continue until filming is completed on May 6.

Ghoida Rahmah, 24, a resident of Rawa Belong, West Jakarta, said she was trapped in traffic for about two hours traveling to Akmani Hotel on Jl. KH. Wahid Hasyim in Menteng, Central Jakarta, despite taking an ojek (motorcycle taxi).

The congestion started from the Tanah Abang overpass in Central Jakarta, she added. She had tried to take a shortcut through Jl. Kampung Bali and Jl. Kebon Kacang Raya to avoid the traffic jam, but to no avail.

“I was annoyed by the traffic diversion. I understand that the police want to make a movie, but they should film it early in the morning, not when the streets are crowded,” Ghoida told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, adding that the street closure should have been announced much earlier.

Putri Marcellia, 24, a resident of Bekasi, West Java, did not know about the traffic diversion.

Driving her own car, she spent about an hour on Jl. Sudirman to get to Grand Indonesia mall last Saturday. She thought the traffic jam had been due the capital’s ongoing MRT construction.

She said the police should have filmed the movie on Sunday morning during Car Free Day to avoid causing traffic.

National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Setyo Wasisto has issued an apology.

“We wanted to show the real conditions of the scene [during the actual attack]. On behalf of the movie producer, I want to apologize [for the traffic jam],” Setyo said.

The movie, which is directed by Eugene Panji and Myrna Paramita, is part of the police’s counterterrorism campaign, he added.

It features actor Ario Bayu and is being financed by the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program of a company, Setyo said, without revealing its name.

On Jan. 14, 2016, Jakarta was rocked by multiple explosions, including one at a police post, and a subsequent gunfight in front of Sarinah between police and multiple assailants.

At least eight people, including four terrorists, were killed. Twenty-six others, including police officers, were injured.

National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian, who led the Jakarta Police at the time, was lauded for the force’s swift actions.

Aman Abdurrahman, the alleged mastermind of the attack, has been tried at the South Jakarta District Court.

According to the prosecutors’ indictment, Aman had been inspired by the Paris terror attack in November 2015.

A month after the incident, Aman reportedly ordered four people to carry out a similar assault on Jl. Sabang, Central Jakarta, an area popular among foreigners. However, the plan changed when the perpetrators instead bombed Starbucks cafe and a police post.

The 35-year-old Palestinian lecturer, who had been living in Malaysia with his wife and three children for 10 years, was shot dead in Setapak here by two assailants as he was on his way for subuh prayers at 6am on Satur-day.

The world media, including international wires as well as Palestinian and Israeli news outlets, picked up the news.

While many parties pointed to Israeli intelligence agency Mossad as being behind the assassination, theories abound about the hit, including Dr Fadi’s expertise in weapons and links to the Islamist organisation Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

News portals also quoted a family friend as claiming that Dr Fadi, who was active in several NGOs, was killed to stop aid to Palestine.

While Hamas has confirmed Dr Fadi as a member, Palestinian websites say he was related to a senior official of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Khaled Albatsh, who accused Mossad of carrying out the attack.

Dr Fadi’s father, too, told Al Jazeera that he believes Mossad to be behind his son’s killing.

He called on the Malaysian authorities to act swiftly and find the culprits.

Dr Fadi, who had permanent resident status in the country, received his doctorate from Universiti Malaya in 2015 and was a senior lecturer at the British Malaysian Institute.

His official biography states that his research interests include power converters, power qua­lity and renewable energy.

Israeli media repor­ted that he was also deeply involved in the Hamas drone development project.

Mossad, known for its meticulous clandestine operations against “enemies” of Israel, is said to have been responsible for the slayings of various Hamas members.

In January 2010, Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed by a team of assassins at a hotel room in Dubai.

In December 2016, Hamas-linked drone expert Mohammed Zawahri was shot dead in southern Tunisia.

According to a news portal, a woman claiming to be a Tunisian journalist who contacted Mohammed for an interview might have had ties to Mossad. The woman reportedly disappeared a day before the killing.

Meanwhile, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun told a press conference yesterday that police were awaiting the results of a post-mortem on Dr Fadi’s body which was sent to the Selayang Hospital.

“No arrests have been made and the murder weapon has not been recovered.

“We are still investigating all angles. We cannot confirm yet that the killers are European as claimed by some witnesses,” he said.

But for all the talk of resisting the “malign activities” of Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin, Washington’s European partners are still concerned that President Donald Trump will tear up the Iran nuclear deal.

And all the G7 partners remain anxious for clues as to how the unpredictable US leader will handle a planned disarmament summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

“There was G7 unity on opposing Russia’s malign behavior,” a senior US official told reporters, citing Moscow’s failure to prevent Syrian forces from using chemical weapons and interference in Western elections.

The final joint statement from the talks will not be released until Monday, but officials from other nations confirmed that the ministers had taken a tough line on Russia’s alleged crimes.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who begins a series of meetings with Trump on Monday, said in an interview that the West must stand up to Putin’s attacks on western democracy, including the spreading of “fake news.”

“He’s strong and smart. But don’t be naive. He’s obsessed by interference in our democracies,” Macron told “Fox News Sunday” before setting off for Washington.

“That’s why I do believe that we should never be weak with President Putin. When you are weak, he uses it.”

Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland hosted the meeting and invited her G7 colleagues plus the European Union’s representative to a working lunch to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels have seized an eastern region.

Later, she said G7 members had “reaffirmed our unity in support of Ukraine and a rules-based international order where state sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by all.”

Deadly nerve agent

G7 capitals are also worried about Russia’s support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime in his country’s brutal civil war and alleged attempt to kill a defector with a nerve agent on British soil.

The senior US official stressed that this month’s joint US, French and British air strikes against Assad’s chemical sites were “not a one-off but was part of a sustained allied campaign to reestablish the deterrent against chemical weapons, and that includes using military means again if necessary.”

But, while the Western allies appeared united in their resolve to face down Russia, the European partners remain concerned that Trump may tear up the 2015 Iran nuclear deal next month.

Trump has threatened to abandon the accord unless European capitals agree to supplement it with tougher controls on Iran’s missile program and future ability to enrich nuclear fuel.

His partners maintain that the implementation of the agreement under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) represents the best way to prevent Tehran from seeking the atomic bomb.

“We’ve been negotiating with the Europeans,” a senior US official accompanying Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan told reporters. “We’ve made a great deal of progress but we’re not there yet.”

During a day-long series of talks, Sullivan stepped aside for a brief bilateral meeting with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

As the pair sat down in the office of the chancellor of the University of Toronto, Johnson was heard telling his US counterpart “one of the things we are concerned about now is the JCPOA and where that is headed.”

A French diplomatic source told AFP that: “Several G7 ministers, led by the French, made a strong appeal to the United States… As it stands, we must not throw the JCPOA out with the bath water.”

The Europeans are willing to work on a supplement to the deal which would not abrogate it, and would toughen controls on Iran’s missile program but “not give Iran a pretext to pull out, which would have disastrous consequences.”

The ministers also discussed North Korea.

Last month, in one of the most surprising twists in world affairs for decades, Trump accepted an invitation from Pyongyang’s autocrat to a summit to discuss to discuss his nuclear disarmament.

Tougher nuclear controls

The G7 members, including frontline state Japan, support efforts to convince Kim to end his efforts to develop a strategic nuclear missile arsenal, but are also keen to hear more from the US side.

Kim is sure to make wide demands of the West, and allies are keen to ensure that Trump does not give too much away to secure a historic deal.

After the foreign affairs meeting, the ministers will be joined on Monday by their domestic security counterparts and discussions will be widened to encompass counterterrorism and cyber security.

Police in the Tennessee city of Nashville said the suspect in the country’s latest mass shooting may have had “mental issues,” and the incident led the city’s mayor to issue an unusually blunt call for “comprehensive gun reform.”

The Metro Nashville Police Department said three people were shot dead at the all-night Waffle House restaurant in the suburb of Antioch at 3:25 am (0825 GMT).

The fourth victim died in hospital and two others were wounded.

Police identified the suspect as Travis Reinking and said he could be armed with a rifle and a handgun, after firing an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at the restaurant, where he was nude except for a green jacket.

A military-style weapon, the AR-15 has been regularly used in US mass shootings.

James Shaw, 29, told a press conference that he and his friend had sat down in the diner after visiting a nightclub, when they thought a pile of plates had crashed.

“I saw the Waffle House employees scatter. Then I looked back and I saw a person laying on the ground right at the entrance of the door,” said Shaw, wearing a brown suit jacket and with his right forearm bandaged.

Shaw said he slid from his table and moved toward the door, which the gunman was trying to enter after apparently firing through the glass.

“I’m pretty sure he grazed my arm,” said Shaw, 29.

“I kind of made up my mind, because there’s no way to lock that door, that if it was gonna come down to it, he was gonna have to work to kill me.”

As the shooter was either reloading, or the weapon jammed, Shaw ran and hit him with the swivel door, leading to a scuffle.

“I managed to get him with one hand on the gun, and then I grabbed it from him and threw it over the countertop,” before getting the suspect outside, Shaw said.

Police said they believe the gunman discarded the jacket while fleeing to his home, where he put on a pair of pants and then disappeared into nearby woods.

Guns were confiscated

It was the second shooting in months to traumatize Nashville, but only the latest of many in the US with large casualties.

A grassroots campaign featuring mass rallies for gun control has emerged since February, when a former student opened fire with an AR-15 at a Florida high school, killing 17 students and staff.

After that attack, businesses including Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods took measures to restrict access to firearms but there has been no major legislation to control guns.

In September, a 25-year-old killed one person and wounded six others during Sunday services at a church in Nashville, which prefers to be known for its country music heritage.

That was just one of the more than 30,000 gun-related deaths annually in the United States.

“We need comprehensive gun reform to address mass shootings, domestic shootings, accidental shootings and homicides,” Nashville Mayor David Briley told the press conference.

He said these “weapons of war” should be removed from the nation’s streets.

“It’s happening too much. Enough is enough,” Briley said.

The mayor hailed Shaw’s courage, as did Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson and Waffle House CEO Walt Ehmer.

“You don’t get to meet many heroes in life, Mr Shaw, but you are a hero. You are my hero. You saved people’s lives,” Ehmer told him.

“We’re forever in your debt.”

Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters that Reinking, originally from Illinois, had been arrested by the US Secret Service for being in a restricted area near the White House in July 2017.

At that time, his Illinois firearms authorization was revoked and his weapons — including the AR-15 — were seized.

But local authorities in Illinois later returned them to Reinking’s father, “who has now acknowledged giving them back to his son,” Aaron said.

Voan Savay, the legendary former prima ballerina of the Cambodian Royal Ballet, keeps her eyes glued to the young dancer rehearsing on the stage. After two months of preparation, this is one of the final dress rehearsals for a brand new production from Cambodian Living Arts, and the show is finally coming together.

From the front row of the theatre at the National Museum, Savay shouts instructions to the young woman and claps along with the beat of the music, illustrating which rhythms to emphasise. One can’t help but wonder if the dancer on stage knows what big shoes she’s been tasked with filling.

Dancer Rith Daro awaits direction during a rehearsal of the Moni Mekhala dance. Daro plays Ream Eyso, the giant. HENG CHIVOAN

In a brief pause in the rehearsal while the technicians adjust the lighting Savay turns around in her seat and pulls up a photograph of herself from 1969, a golden era for ballet in the country. The image shows an 18-year-old ballerina in her prime, performing the Moni Mekhala, the very same dance being readied in front of her.

The music starts up again, and the young dancer on the stage resumes her run-through.

The performance these dancers are working towards will hold its official premiere just after Khmer New Year, and showcases classical ballet, traditional folk dancing and storytelling, all linked by one cohesive narrative.

On the stage, the cast seamlessly weaves together scenes of rural life with traditional works like the Moni Mekhala and various animal dances. The dancers perform each of these numbers with truly infectious joy – the monkeys frolic rambunctiously, the peacocks preen, the goddesses float across the stage, and when the villagers dance and play it’s impossible to resist swaying in your seat and clapping along.

But, for all the show’s artistic merit, which it has in spades, some of the most innovative aspects of this production take place offstage and out of view of the audience. Behind the scenes, Cambodian Living Arts is attempting to create a new model for cultivating and sustaining the arts and artists in this country.

It’s an effort that is requiring these young artists, and the people like Savay working behind the scenes to support them, to take these heavenly, ethereal artforms and bring them pragmatically crashing down to earth – by teaching ballerinas how to budget, and walking dancers through the intricate steps of contract negotiation.

The incubator

The cast of this new performance was put together over the course of several rounds of auditions in January. More than 70 artists tried out and 30 were picked to participate in a new group that CLA is unofficially calling the “incubator troupe”.

These performers will remain in the program for two years, and during that time they will be getting much more than artistic guidance and training. In all-day sessions held once per month, CLA will also be teaching them the hard skills needed to make a living from their craft – skills like budgeting, contract negotiation, networking and team-building – making the incubator project a sort of business school for artists.

“Preservation stands shoulder to shoulder with artistic development”

Jean-Baptiste Phou, the head of creative programs at Cambodian Living Arts, said that to him and others involved in the incubator, this approach just makes sense – while people often talk about valuing the arts, they think less about what it takes for artists to get by. And, he said, we also don’t properly teach our artists to know their own worth.

“I think it’s important because we value arts and artists and need them to value themselves,” he said. “They need to make a living.”

The hope is that by giving these artists the tools to sustain themselves, the arts they practice can live on as well.

“It’s not just about preservation,” said Yon Sokhorn, who manages the artistic and professional training the incubator artists will receive, “but preservation stands shoulder to shoulder with artistic development”.

Everyone involved in this project, from Savay down to the individual dancers and actors, speaks of their work protecting these artforms as a sort of calling.

“As a Cambodian, I am very happy to know my own culture and to be able to perform it on stage,” said Somkhoun Sayavuk, 25, a member of the incubator troupe, who said that even from a young age he knew that he wanted to protect and preserve the artistic traditions of this country.

“I want to show Cambodian people from all generations about the richness of our culture,” he said.

For many artists working today, however, that calling to make and protect art comes with an increasingly difficult life.

Choreographer Voan Savay gives feedback to dancer Vann Sreynich.//HENG CHIVOAN

A ‘life mission’

Savay is no stranger to struggling for her art, but even she thinks that the obstacles facing this current generation of artists are daunting.

During the Khmer Rouge period, when Savay’s family was evicted from Phnom Penh in 1975, she hid the fact that she was a dancer in order to survive. She later returned to the city after the fall of the Khmer Rouge and took up dancing once again, only to be forced from her home by political instability for a second time in 1981. She settled in refugee camps along the Thai border with her husband, a fellow artist, but even then she didn’t let her circumstances keep her from her devotion to ballet.

Voan Savay in 1969. Photo supplied

During the 10 years Savay spent in the camps she established a dance school and taught dozens of Cambodian children, many of whom grew up to be artists in their own right. One of Savay’s students from that time now lends her voice to the music for the CLA performance.

But, despite all of the twists and turns of Savay’s life, she still maintains she has been luckier in her career than most of the dancers working today. She admits that she doesn’t know how most young artists survive on the low amounts of money they are able to earn from their hard work, and she laments the fact that financial concerns force many of them to work in places she sees as beneath their lofty craft – like hotel lobbies and restaurants. In her opinion, performing classical dance in these locations cheapens the artform.

Savay also noted that younger artists aren’t just up against financial difficulty but also disinterest from the Khmer public, something that wasn’t the case in her time performing. In her day, she said, a Royal Ballet performance would attract streams of people from the provinces to the capital, often camping out just to get the chance to see the company’s storied ballerinas perform. Now, a show is a success if it can get even a handful of locals to attend.

Her contributions today are perhaps more humble but arguably longer lasting than in her youth.

“Before I thought of dancing as a way to show off and to get the love from my parents and my friends,” Savay said. “However, right now, I see it as a life mission until the day I die.”

Additional reporting by Ouk Suntharoth

The premiere takes place on April 19 at 7pm, on the grounds of the National Museum of Cambodia. It will then be on stage six nights per week, at 7pm from Monday to Saturday for the foreseeable future.