Sunday, March 16, 2008

Walking in the Rain

Although this blog focus mainly on Chinese opera, this time round I shall talk about Chinese folk dance instead. Why the move, you may ask, but I have to point out that both art forms are very closely linked to one another. Ancient Chinese opera, for example, was developed from folk religious dance, and it is not uncommon to see dance choreography being incorporated into Chinese opera shows nowadays.

The dance which I want to showcase here is titled "Walking in the Rain". This dance was inspired by Puxian opera excerpt "Ruilan Walking in the Rain", and was performed by Fujian Province Dance Troupe in the 50s. Puxian opera has very unique sets of gestures and movements, and it's not hard for the audience to catch a glimpse of that in this dance. These movements were so delicate and unique that this dance immediately caught the attention of many fellow professional practitioners in the dance scene.