Salute to life
0 
 |
|
Actors on stage in Sounds from Yunnan. [China.org.cn] |
Considered as one of China's best folk dancers, the Yunnan native never received professional dance training. She learned dance from her family, especially her grandmother who was a singer.
"People of ethnic groups sustain their memory of singing and dancing without being aware of it. They learn from their family, and children begin to dance when they learn to walk," she explained. "When they see ants mate, they can create movements imitating the process. For professional dancers have to learn movements by practice."
With her extraordinary talent, Yang rose to fame and overnight became a national sensation in 1986 with her solo performance of Spirit of Peacock. With her slim figure and delicate movements, she captured the essence of the Dai totem and the personality and elegance of the bird. Dubbed "Peacock Princess" since then, her reputation and audience grew with works such as Two Trees and Moonlight in which she gives life to creatures with expressive body language, vividly presents a tree's image and shows a fish against the backdrop of the moon.
After years of performances, appearing in films and TV serials, Yang returned to her roots, to preserve and promote folk dances and culture, which inspired her own earlier works.
She rues the fact that, with the advance of modernization, so many ethnic dances have been lost or are disappearing. Dances showcasing the original culture of ethnic groups are "very meaningful especially for people in a civilized world who have lost their [spiritual] home," she explained.
To create Dynamic Yunnan, Yang traveled to 26 ethnic minority tribes in Yunnan and spent about a year watching different dances, studying and recording local songs, and then selected about 60 peasants with a talent of singing and dancing.
Go to Forum >>0 Comments