Eleanor contact information:Email: elle@eleanorclpham.com or emlc95@hotmail.com
Phone:
+61 434613542 (Australia)
+84 1229093683 (Vietnam)
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Have you ever thought that the things you dream are too far to grasp? Have you been told to come back down to earth and leave dreaming for children? Here is a story of a girl who has climbed, who has fallen and who rose up again and took hold of everything she’d ever desired;
On Dec 22 2006, millions people across Vietnam sat in front of their televisions looking on in amazement as they witnessed something they had never seen before
The 1st and only Non Vietnamese Person to master the ancient art of Tuong and Cheo.
In 2006 A 23 year old Australian girl by the name of Eleanor Clapham or other wise known as Hoang Lan took Vietnam by storm and attracted a wave of attention when she performed a one woman show, broadcast across the country showcasing her mastery of Ancient Vietnamese Song, Dance and Acting. In this mist of her seemingly sudden success Eleanor then completely disappeared. Leaving people wondering what happened to her.
4 years on she has returned to Vietnam once again taking the country by storm, but this time with the release of her debut album ‘The Awakening’ On 26th June 2010 she will be performing at the Hanoi Opera House demonstrating an exciting mixture of ancient and modern sounds, costumes, music and dance.
An album she describes as ‘what I always set out to create, a perfect fusion of contemporary pop music and ancient Asian traditions’ But who is Eleanor Clapham and what is the story behind this unique and captivating journey?
Eleanor spend a lot of her early years feeling as if she was constantly standing at the crossroads; she knew she wanted to be a performer, but didn’t know how she was going to compete with all the performers that she perceived to be more talented than her. In 2005, while Eleanor was completing her Bachelor of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong Eleanor found herself confused and distressed about the future when she was dropped from the opera class, told that she didn’t have what it takes to be an Opera Singer. She began seeking some direction for her creative career and she found it in the most unlikely of places; A Vietnamese Australian by the name of Ta Duy Binh came to her University to demonstrate his theatrical studies in the art of Tuong in Vietnam. Eleanor was blown away by the stylised, delicate and beautiful nature of the dance and the singing, it was like nothing she had ever seen before. She knew that if she could learn this, she would have a skill that would set her out from the crowd. When she approached Ta Duy Binh with the idea that she would go to Vietnam and learn the art of Tuong he told her that it would be very difficult for her because she would have to learn Vietnamese. He said that perhaps she could learn the dance but there was no way she would be able to learn the singing as it was very complicated and extremely difficult, even for a Vietnamese person.
Ta Duy Binh admits that he never expected her to really follow through with this desire but gave her the contacts she needed. To everyone’s surprise Eleanor did go to Vietnam and began pursue her very strange goal; to master the ancient theatrical arts of Vietnam. She arrived in Vietnam with very little Vietnamese skills and lived with a family of Vietnamese artists Co Tuyet and Chu Duc, who did not speak any English. Co Tuyet over time became like a mother figure for Eleanor and later became her teacher. She began her daily lessons in the art of Tuong with several teachers, none of whom spoke any English. Her lessons involved stylised dance, song, acting and weapons movement, different to anything she had ever heard before, and all in Vietnamese,
In order to overcome the initial language barrior, Eleanor learnt through a method of filming her teachers demonstrate the piece and then she would spend hours alone each night learning it exactly. She faced hours of gruelling training in extremely complicated movement and singing.
Eleanor was determined, but she faced some very tough moments;
Eleanor da kien nhan va hieu hoc nhung co doi mat voi rat nhieu nhung dong tack ho.
Day One
Even though my Vietnamese has progressed a lot in the past few days today I found the communication gap to be a big problem, and so did the teacher.
My teacher’s name is Kim Hue, she’s a stout little woman and very severe…
She’s in fact quite famous in Vietnam, so I’m really lucky to have such a master for a teacher.
She taught me a series of basic movements today and I found it extremely challenging. After I forgot the moves a couple of times my teacher became quiet unimpressed. Today was the first day that I felt that the language barrior was restricting me, up until now I have felt quite confident about my progress, but today’s lesson shattered me, and I asked myself, what am I doing here?
Day two
After my last lesson with this teacher was such a travesty I spent hours trying to perfect the dance for our next lesson, every hand movement is so intricate I had to play the video back over and over until I thought I’d go crazy. Then during the next lesson my teacher asked me to demonstrate the moves she’d taught me. This time I was confident and knew the dance very well. After that my teacher treated me differently, I think now she believes I can do it. And I wont let her down.
Eleanor studied harder than she’s ever done in her life. She spent hours every day perfecting her lessons. Eleanor’s determination to master these art forms continued to impress her teachers
After years of solid study, Eleanor’s skill had improved out of sight and she started to receive attention from newspapers, radio, and television. As all of her efforts began to pay off she was propelled into fame in Vietnam. She performed a one woman show at the Hanoi Opera House, broadcast nationwide and on cable television seen by Vietnamese people living around the world including the USA, France, Germany, Thailand and even her home country, Australia. After performning a famous characher Thi Mau on VTV4 she became known as Thi Mau Toc Vang meaning the blonde haired Thi Mau. She was invited to perform for all sorts of events including the APEC event in Hanoi, the New Years Festival television special, broadcast nationwide, performing with Vietnam’s most famous comedian Xuan Hinh. She went from walking down the crowded streets of Mai Dich Hanoi with people wondering who this strange foreigner was to everyone knowing exactly who she was and receiving sponsorship from companies such as TRG International, the Melia Hotel, The Australian Embassy, The Vietnamese Misistry of Culture and Information, The Army Newspaper, the Water Puppets Theatre the Tuong Theatre and the Cheo Theatre.
Amongst all this success anyone would think that Eleanor would be happy. But beneath the gleaming success, pressure was building and Eleanor was on a verge of a nervous breakdown.
Eleanor says; ‘I had worked and worked and worked, and I never took time to rest, I was putting huge physical demands on my body and on my mind and I was getting all this attention and invitations to perform. But all of this sudden success was so daunting for me, it was unexpected and I didn’t know how to handle it. It’s hard to explain what was happening inside of me but all I can say is that I was so hard on my self and expected so much of myself that I eventually just broke down.
On the exterior Eleanor looked like a success but on the inside she was feeling like a failure. Just as she was reaching success Eleanor cut short her trip and went home to Australia, her teachers and peers could not understand her sudden disappearance. She felt so distraught and confused that she decided to give up all together.
Eleanor say; ‘This, I think, was the lowest part of my life. If anyone asked me why I’d left Vietnam I would just cry and say ‘I don’t know why’. I felt so lost, with no direction. I went from being in the spotlight in Vietnam to working in a restaurant in Sydney making coffee, and no one knew or cared what I’d achieved. It was like my life had no meaning. ‘
Eleanor worked and thought for a year, trying new endeavours but nothing gave her any drive or joy. Finally Eleanor decided to go back to University and pursue some new career. But before the new academic year began, a miracle happened.
Eleanor say; ‘I received an email from a director in Singapore. He said that he had seen some articles about me on the internet , he was doing a production and wanted me to come to Singapore to perform, flights and accommodation paid. At first I thought this was a scam, but when he send my the ticket I was blown away; after all this time that something so out of the blue could occur. It was as if the world was telling me not to give up, that I had unfinished business, and it got me thinking about what I really wanted to do. After going to Singapore and having an amazing experience I went back to Vietnam on my way home to Australia. I was walking down the streets of Hanoi it occurred to me why I had left Vietnam and what I really wanted to do.
Eleanor says; ‘I had been trying so hard to perfect an art form exactly the way the masters said it should be, but for what? What could I do with what I’d learnt? I knew I didn’t want to just abandon all that I’d learnt because that would be a tragic waste. But I didn’t want to go back to being so hard on myself trying to perfect an extremely difficult art form. So I had to find a way of using everything I’d learnt but to create something of my own. And it came to me, so obvious, what I’d always wanted to do, since I was a child, to be a song writer. So I went back to Australia to begin my mission.
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Eleanor says ‘I would sit for hours listening to recordings of lessons I had taken in Vietnam. I wanted to create music that made use and drew inspiration of everything I’d learnt in Vietnam at the same time coming right from place in my heart that was completely my own. I didn’t want to write world music, that was not my goal. I wanted to write the kind of music that I would want to listen to; pop music.
I wrote each song coming straight from the heart, thus the album is in a way a heartfelt chronological recording of my journey so far. It’s got pain and got a sense of being lost and not knowing where to go it’s got waking up and realising who you want to be, it’s got love and joy and hope and fear. It’s me absolutely and purely me… in every note….
On her journey Eleanor discovered a wonderful outlet to begin honing her performance skills and building a fan base; Eleanor now sings every week for Vietnamese audiences singing Vietnamese and English pop music at Weddings and clubs.
After 1 ½ years of hard work and dedication, Eleanor’s dream was finally becoming a reality. Eleanor returned to her second home; Vietnam, this time to record to music she had created. She worked in cooperation with some famous Vietnamese musicians, one of whom is Co Tuyet’s daughter.
. Eleanor says; ‘I want to use the Vietnamese instruments in the recording, these musicians specialise in fusing traditional music with modern music so I’m very lucky to have the honour to work with these people.
On June 26 2010 all of her dreams are about to come true. She will be performing again at the Hanoi Opera house. In what has been described as ‘one perfect night’ she will really put on a show, showcasing 12 songs of her own creation, performed with Chi Huong’s band, she will demonstrate her mastery of drum movement, fan movements, flag and sword movements. All delivered with a powerful, mellifluous voice that vibrated through the air and inspired all who heard it.
Eleanor says ‘Even though all of my music is written in English I wrote Vietnamese verses for each of the songs especially for this concert so that I could really include everyone in the audience. I want everyone to go home and really understand what I was trying to say, through my music.
Eleanor says; ‘I truly believe, with all my heart, that we are all of us creators of magic. And we really can create anything we dream, the only thing standing in our way is hard work, dedication and a burning desire.
What happened next? Read Eleanor’s blog to find out!