Peacock
Dance to express passion, to "dage" (Stomp dance) to celebrate the harvest
and play drums for making love. My heart could not live in peace for more than
30 years because of these dances and songs, which are over flowing with the bright
light of human spirit. Therefore, I went on an expedition travelling through mountains
and villages to collect these folk dances and songs. I covered almost all of Yunnan
and travelled more than 10,000 kilometres. There were times when I did not take
a bath for more than 15 days. Once our vehicle was stuck in the deep snow of Baimeng
Snowy Mountain in Deqin. The temperture fell to -20 degrees Celsius as the night
approached. My companions said that I would have become a "Frozen Peacock"
if I had not been able to get out. But events such as this did not reduce my determination.
This was a spiritual journey for me, which showed me many wondrous things that
I will remember for the rest of my life.
One day at sunset, I saw a person
in the distance as small as an ant moving up the big slope of an enormous mountain.
Looking carefully, I saw that it was a woman carrying a baby on her back. The
sun was shining on her with layers of golden rays. She was ploughing the land
on the mountain. I cried as I knew that she was just trying to grow a little more
rice so that the baby on her back could have enough food. Another day, I met a
Bulang minority girl called Ah Xiu and she wanted to join my dance troupe. I did
not want to take her as she was really too petite for dancing. However, when I
found out that she wanted to dance only in order to earn enough money to achieve
her dream of buying a bull that costs Rmb 400 for her family - and the average
annual income per person in her village was only Rmb 150 - I cried again. I took
her in.
During my expedition, whilst I was enchanted by this ocean of dances
and songs, I also grew deeply concerned about the disappearing traditional cultural
dances and songs, which are in the process of being replaced by the invasion of
modern culture and materialism. Many minority people do not wear traditional embroidered
shoes anymore but have jeans instead. For example, I was deeply saddened when
I found there were only a couple of elders left who could still play the Scared
Drum of Luchun and this complex traditional dance with teens of different sets
of choreography that express so many aspects of human life was going to disappear
when they pass away. We may not have the ability to prevent the eventual disappearance
of panda. The only thing that I can do is to take immediate action. Without any
funding from other sources, I decided to use my own savings to start preparing
Dynamic Yunnan, a stage performance that will record these precious folkloric
dances and songs.
When creating such an ethnic dance musical that is filled
with human spirit and minority characteristics, an important decision is how to
open that special door to bring the performance to live. The selection of actors
and actresses is crucial and I insisted on using aboriginal people from the local
villages. The joy and elation these honest and plain people express when they
dance for love and life is the best media to show the original spirit of these
ethnic dances. I did not choreograph anything. My job was just to make the right
choices and clean off the dust from the diamonds so that they can shine again.
These
minority performers can all sing, dance and play instruments. The two-step dance
with three-beat singing would be too difficult to learn, even for a dancer master.
Even a music master would cheer for their style of singing that is not in tune
and stacked with different layers of rhythms. Their lyrics include deep philosophical
ideas put into simple words. I am sad that the performance is only more than one
hour long. It is too short for me to put in more content. What can we show you
in a performance for just more than an hour? Maybe: the height and weight of the
mountains, the heat of the red soil, the piercing rays of the sun, the crystal
clear light of the moon, the bitterness of the bitter bamboo and our perseverance
towards dreams We would wish that you can feel some of the character of Yunnan
people and have some impression of the land through this performance that is filled
with the results of human creation and intelligence. Even more, we wish you could
join us in the search for artistic spirit and ways to develop ethnic culture in
a world of globalisation after seeing this grand ethnic dance musical. |
