A Love Story, Not A Fairy Tale - Royal Ballet of Cambodia

A Love Story, Not A Fairy Tale is a dance performance specially created for the commemoration of Cambodia’s 68^th Independence Day in November 2021, with a musical score inspired by King Norodom Sihanouk’s song Monica. It took place at the Queen Library, a cultural initiative of Youk Chhang​’s Sleuk Rith Institute with the scientific contribution of the King Father’s personal secretary and researcher Julio Jeldres. 

Serei Vankosaun & Nalys Sok, the two dancers, had just starred in The Perfect Motion movie, released in Cambodia in 2023, have shared many moments on and back stage, as they recalled in this 2023 interview. They had previously performed the same piece for HM Queen-Mother Monineath in a private event for International Women’s Day, 8 March 2021, also at the Queen Mother Library, which had been inaugurated on 21 September 2020.

This moving synthesis of Khmer classical dance and modern music was staged when Cambodia was dealing with the global pandemic, as one can see in the photo below: