{"id":10710,"date":"2017-11-20T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T03:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/?p=10710"},"modified":"2023-09-28T16:03:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T09:03:45","slug":"they-call-him-ako","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/they-call-him-ako\/","title":{"rendered":"They Call Him “Ako”"},"content":{"rendered":"

His nickname\u00a0is\u00a0\u201cAko\u201d…<\/h2>\n

…which\u00a0literally means \u201cThe deaf\u201d in Cambodian language. It’s common for Cambodians to state things as they are, sometimes without emotional attachment\u00a0and without\u00a0the awareness of any\u00a0affect\u00a0or consequence it may have. Such\u00a0behavior\u00a0also\u00a0reflects\u00a0the\u00a0ways\u00a0in\u00a0which\u00a0handicapped\u00a0persons are\u00a0stigmatized\u00a0in Cambodian society.\u00a0\u00a0However,\u00a0Sopheak\u00a0is a living example of the\u00a0human spirit\u00a0triumphing over all adversity, who, through dedication, has\u00a0transformed\u00a0a physical defect into a fascinating character feature. He reverses all prejudice one has about deaf and mute people, dancing with more groove and inner rhythm than anyone else, mastering all circus disciplines in one body!<\/p>\n

\"Sopheak2-Ako\"<\/p>\n

Circus Skills<\/h3>\n

Sopheak\u00a0is\u00a0an excellent acrobat, who can also perform aerials, balancing and\u00a0all kinds of\u00a0juggling.\u00a0His specialty is hand-to-hand with his flying partner\u00a0Sarav\u00a0HOUN. But above all, there\u2019s his exceptional capacity to catch attention, move the audience, reveal the invisible and express what lies beneath appearance.<\/p>\n

\"Eclipse<\/a><\/p>\n

His interpretation of a man blaming and brutalizing himself as villagers discriminate him, was absolutely breathtaking in Phare\u2019s 2007 production named \u201cEclipse\u201d.<\/p>\n

As a child Sopheak was working a lot to get the minimum to eat: begging in the street, collecting cans, looking for food (potatoes, watermelons) in the rubbish or on the dumpsite. He remembers it as a very violent environment, though he says he was not aware of his tragic situation, being a kid. German magazine Reportagen shares his story.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Phare,<\/a>

PPSE helps continue the inspiring work of the school Phare Ponleu Selpak<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

School of Hope<\/h3>\n

His attending to Phare\u00a0Ponleu\u00a0Selpak<\/a> was made possible thanks to the dedicated founder of the circus school, Mr.\u00a0Det\u00a0KHUON<\/a>, who convinced him to escape his family attention, and sneak inside the circus gymnasium to try out some tricks just to have fun with other\u00a0kids. His pleasure was immense and his talent revealed immediately. He quickly joined in to perform Holiday Ban\u00a0Touy\u00a0Ban Tom, Eclipse and From 4 to 5 that toured all around the world. In 2009 Ako and his friend Prak were accepted to the French National Center of Circus Arts where they spent the next 4 years training to become masters in their skills. This was the first step of a beautiful story leading to an international career. Since then Ako and the duo Ako & Aprak have traveled the world performing. Their next venture in 2017:\u00a0Le Trianon.\u00a0<\/a>We will\u00a0definitely\u00a0follow Ako’s growing success and have no doubt\u00a0that he will be great!<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His nickname\u00a0is\u00a0\u201cAko\u201d… …which\u00a0literally means \u201cThe deaf\u201d in Cambodian language. It’s common for Cambodians to state things as they are, sometimes without emotional attachment\u00a0and without\u00a0the awareness of any\u00a0affect\u00a0or consequence it may have. Such\u00a0behavior\u00a0also\u00a0reflects\u00a0the\u00a0ways\u00a0in\u00a0which\u00a0handicapped\u00a0persons are\u00a0stigmatized\u00a0in Cambodian society.\u00a0\u00a0However,\u00a0Sopheak\u00a0is a living example of the\u00a0human spirit\u00a0triumphing over all adversity, who, through dedication, has\u00a0transformed\u00a0a physical defect into a fascinating character feature. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[56,48,54,73,41],"tags":[421,408,319,92,93,422,423,177,303,66,424,253,150,99,425],"class_list":["post-10710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-circus","category-blog","category-pps-battambang","category-success","tag-acro","tag-acrobat","tag-acrobatics","tag-cambodia","tag-circus","tag-circus-arts","tag-circus-performers","tag-circus-school","tag-circus-skills","tag-eclipse","tag-eclipse-show","tag-phare-cambodian-circus","tag-phare-circus","tag-siem-reap","tag-stars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}