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Part of every celebration in Cambodia is traditional Khmer dance. Here a group of young girls perform a dance based on the movements of birds. |
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These girls, waiting for their turn to perform, are dressed in costumes with headdresses made of peacock feathers. One dance group followed another for about two hours and the crowd enjoyed them all. |
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Probably the most classic of the dance troupes was this group with the long Khmer skirts. They performed a dance in which jasmine flowers were taken from cups they carried and sprinkled around the stage and toward the audience. |
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Along with the dancers were several skits performed by village groups from the different areas of the country where the new priests came from. This young man and woman are dressed in costumes from the tribal areas in the northeast of Cambodia. |
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To foreigners, many of the dances seem the same--and they are in their slow, graceful movements in unison. But the costumes are different and so are the stories and the messages of the dances. |