The Tenth Dancer

Em Theay, a former dancer at the Cambodia Royal Ballet, returns to Phnom Penh after the fall of Pol Pot, to become the teacher of the ballet company, among whom only one in ten dancers survived the Khmer Rouge regime. She tells the story of her life as a dancer and as a mother and of her ferocious determination to preserve the centuries-long artistic traditions of which she is the living custodian – whatever the cost and through harsh trials. With the same energy she now devotes herself to the revival of the ballet company. “Now I have the light to live. Just like a tree that is coming into bud and beginning to blossom.”