⧉Image Dance Props: Learning From Folk Artists

In 1950, Zhang Ke (张苛 b. 1930) was recruited to join the Southwest Visiting Team (Xinan fangwentuan 西南访问团) tasked with carrying out diplomatic activities with ethnic minority communities in Southwest China. One of the tasks of this team was to learn local dances and recruit talented artists to study in Beijing. Here, we see members of the Team in Yunnan learning Guozhuang (锅庄) dance from local Tibetans. In subsequent years, Zhang Ke would become a choreographer at the Central Nationalities Song and Dance Ensemble, where he would co-choreograph the modern Tibetan dance 'Reba On the Grassland' (Caoyuan shang de reba 草原上的热巴) along with Tibetan dancer Tibetan dancer Oumijiacan (欧米加参 b. 1928), one of the dancers he helped recruit on this trip. [For a video of this dance see ⧉source video collage].

This photograph shows folk artists in Anhui Province performing a style of local Han music and dance known as 'flower drum lamp' (huagudeng 花鼓灯) that uses folding fans and handkerchiefs, popular props in Han folk dance. This photograph was taken during a field research trip to Anhui Province led by Sheng Jie (盛婕 b. 1917), an important figure in the Chinese dance field who worked at the Beijing Dance School and the China Dance Research Institute during the 1950s. This folk form became the basis for a modern stage choreography called 'Flower Drum Lamp,' which won an award at the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957.

This photograph shows Siqintariha (斯琴塔日哈, b. 1932, center), then a leading female dancer from the Inner Mongolia Song and Dance Ensemble, learning a type of folk dance in which the dancer clinks together two small wine cups in each hand as she dances. Her teacher is a renowned Mongol folk dance artist named Nashunhutu (那顺呼图) from Etuokeqi, a region in Inner Mongolia. Siqintariha incorporated this technique into her female Mongol dance solo 'Cup and Bowl Dance' (Zhongwanwu, 盅碗舞), which won an award at the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1962. A video of this dance can be found by searching '彩蝶纷飞'.