Dancer-choreographer Yang Liping. Photo: CFP

By Jiang Yuxia

The cultural richness of Yunnan's ethnic minorities will once again be center-stage. The force behind it is none other than the celebrated dancer-choreographer, Yang Liping. Her original ethnic dance musicals - with deep roots in the traditions of Yunnan's ethnic groups and drawn from their everyday life - have won her both artistic acclaim and huge commercial success.

The fourth round of Dynamic Yunnan, a dance epic filled with songs and dances celebrating the sun, the moon and Yunnan's folk legends, will be staged with awe-inspiring effects in Beijing in mid-January.  

Debuting in 2003, Dynamic Yunnan is the first of Yang's three original ethnic dance repertoires. This includes Tibetan Myth (2007), a unique interpretation of Tibetan culture and Buddhism, and Sounds from Yunnan (2009), which highlights the natural sounds and folk culture of over 20 minority ethnic groups in Yunnan.

With every movement and tune coming from real life, Yang's modern staging endowed them with new elements. With original period costumes, musical instruments and simple but enthusiastic performance, Yang captures the charm of ethnic groups that is often overlooked by professional dancers.

Named "bimo," the witch with the gift of dancing by her Bai ethnic fellows, Yang said that the dance dramas were created to deliver the ethnic people's aboriginal understanding of and attitude towards life, nature and the universe. "We, people of ethnic groups, dance without any utilitarian purpose. We dance to sing in praise of the sun and life, we dance to enjoy the nature," Yang told the Global Times.

Although her works do not show much pain and suffering that exist in real life, she said that they are embodied in the works, but shown in a different way. "It doesn't mean that there is no bitterness and illness in life, but we use our emotions to emphasize bitterness, which is natural as it indicates our understating and perception of life," she added.

Actors on stage in Sounds from Yunnan. Photo: IC

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. 

To her, dancing is one way for ethnic minorities to show their feelings towards nature, as they believe everything to be born with a soul and spirit, and in need of communication.

"Ethnic groups consider people as earth's messengers for transmitting a human being's feelings to heaven. The language of dance is a mysterious one for ethnic groups," she said, explaining that was behind her idea of choosing peasants to perform in her shows.

Before she staged her first original dance drama, a lot of so-called ethnic dances were infused with too many artificial, modern elements, which diluted their essential elements. "Many ethnic songs and dances have lost their original charm. Just as their costumes are re-designed, their dances are choreographed with input from other genres such as ballet,'' she said.

Although she faced funding difficulties in staging Dynamic Yunnan, it was fulfilling. The critically acclaimed performance bagged five of the ten awards at the fourth "Lotus Award," China's highest honor for dance.

The success of her work, she explained, lies in its interpretation of life and its meaning. "They do not show the sickness, depression and anguish, but life itself - morality, spirit and feelings. It is about your consciousness of life," she pointed out.

 Recent years have seen the frequent staging of ethnic dances, including as part of exchange programs, in other countries. However, Yang felt that "folk dances are primarily for the folks to entertain themselves. There should be a limit to using folk forms for the stage."