About this Artist
SAM SATHYA began formal training as a classical dancer in the early 1980s but had her first exposure to performance during the Khmer Rouge’s revolutionary rule (1975-1979). As a little girl, it was her task to light the lamps that would illuminate the performance area of the troupes that danced and sang of the glory of the revolution. Hailed as the finest dancer of her generation, her roles include Neang Seda (Princess Sita) in the Reamker, Cambodia’s version of the Ramayana epic, and Moni Mekhala, goddess of the sea, maintaining a lineage from her own renowned teachers, Chea Samy (who passed away in 1994) and Menh Kossony. She was a featured dancer in Stravinsky’s Perséphone directed by Peter Sellars at the Teatro Real in Madrid and has also created and/or performed lead roles in Cheam Shapiro’s Samritechak, The Glass Box, and Seasons of Migration. Sam Sathya has toured throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, and teaches at the National School of Fine Arts.