6/24/2009 9:59:00 AM Chatfield native's book about Cambodia and ballet published
"Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama”
By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy
Paul Cravath has seen Earth in flower. He's thrilled, cover to cover.
"Some parts of it are extremely interesting and some parts of it are simply for the preservation of documentation of the ballet for the Cambodian people," said the 1962 Chatfield High School alum who is now professor of drama at Leeward College in Honolulu, Hawaii, and author of "Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama," being presented as a free St. Charles author's night event slated for next Monday, June 29, at 7 p.m. at the St. Charles Community Center.
"I wrote it as my doctoral dissertation at the University of Hawaii ... when the Khmer Rouge took over the city of Phnom Penh in 1975, they did so at gunpoint and killed anybody connected with the royal family and royal court, of which the Royal Cambodian Ballet is a part. There was only one dance company, and any of the dancers, musicians or support personnel in the capital were killed - about 90 percent of the company. The government knew it was going to happen, so that's why they invited me to do research on it."
The Fulbright scholar attended Luther College after graduating from Chatfield High School, then redeemed his scholarship in Indore, India, where "at the age of 21, my life changed completely ... India was the best place to be in the world."
He taught for a year in Tokyo, then earned his master's degree in drama at Tulane University in New Orleans, then went on to continue his studies in Asian drama at the University of Hawaii. "The University of Hawaii has the best program in Asian theater, so I went there to pursue my Ph.D. in Asian drama. My professor actually was asked to do the research," Cravath explained, "but he couldn't go, so he told them that he had a graduate student who could go, so I did. When I got there in January 1975, the city was surrounded and they were attacking the city with rockets. I wasn't quite ready ... I was shocked because there were rockets being fired into the city the day I arrived. It was a very strange place to be when the city was under attack ... I realized, 'Oh my gosh, this is war,' but I watched ballet rehearsals because I was there to research the ballet."
He explained that the Royal Cambodian Ballet is "not like any other ballet," in that it is comprised solely of female dancers who are also the king's harem, and members are chosen as children.
"There was a school for little girls - they start training them at age 8 - the most beautiful little girls are chosen from each province, and the very best ones were invited to perform in the national troupe. Their performances were only for the royal family unless an invitation was given. The ballet was more than just a dance - they believed that their dances, the most sacred of the dances, could have power over the spirit world. It was dance related to events, like if they needed rain, they danced - and dance was the embodiment of the spirit world, the power of the king ... the tradition was that the girls were the embodiment of the earth ... everything feminine was associated with the power of the earth, so that's why the book is titled 'Earth in Flower.'"
Weekly stops at the American Embassy punctuated Cravath's studies of the ballet, the art form which he preserved through photographs and meticulously detailed descriptions of each dance's characters, their histories, and how the various choreographed motions depicted.
Though Cravath was warned not to remain in Cambodia, he persisted in his research, even as the American government denied him assured protection and "everything in Phnom Penh was just fine," according to mainstream media.
"The official American state department policy was 'everything's fine,' when in fact, the Communist Khmer Rouge was tightening."
Area newspapers actually reported Cravath as having disappeared, though it would be several years until he found the articles his mother had saved. One read, "The parents of Paul Cravath, 30, a Chatfield native now in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on a study program, have been informed that their son is alive and safe. Russell Cravath of Chatfield, Paul's father, said the family had learned Tuesday that Paul is safe. They had been concerned since letters from Cambodia quit coming after Feb. 17.
"The student's father declined to say how word of his son's safety was conveyed to him as he is afraid it would jeopardize his son's future safety. He said his son had been advised to leave Cambodia because of the fighting but he does not know his son's intentions. Paul Cravath arrived in Cambodia on Jan. 11 to study classical dance drama in order to earn a doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Hawaii."
A day he visited the embassy to check in would be his final fortnight in Cambodia, as the American ambassador informed him that Phnom Penh would be evacuated of foreigners the next morning and that Cravath was to be on the plane for Bangkok, Thailand.
"It wasn't like the fall of Saigon where everyone tried to rush to get on the planes," he related.
"We took a bus through the city, and when we got to the airport, there were rockets being fired at the airport, so we had to run to a bunker and wait for our airplane. I could take only one bag, so I brought all my notes." He returned to Hawaii and "worked on my dissertation periodically," but had other occupations that filled his time.
"Finally, in 1984, I finished it and got my degree, but I put the papers under my bed, and they lived there for the next 20 years. I tried to publish it a couple times, but the university wanted to shorten it to just more than 200 pages, and I didn't want to do that. Twenty years after I wrote it, a fellow named Kent Davis read two sentences of it in a column someone wrote about it and decided it should be published because he felt it was a cultural treasure."
The resulting volume "is being marketed primarily to libraries," but Cravath is pleased to see it bound and illustrated using the rare photographs he had taken 34 years ago.
"There's only 776 copies printed, and Kent's house burned down and 12 copies burned. I'm just happy to see it in some libraries, because that's where it belongs. The ballet is a beautiful, beautiful dance form."
