Gold medal-winning dance by Malaysian Ask Dance Troupe at the second International Dance Festival held in the northern province of Ninh Bình. VNA Photo Minh Đức
HÀ NỘI – The third International Dance Festival opened on August 17 at the Huế Cinema & Culture Centre in the central province of Thừa Thiên Huế.
The festival will see performances by some of 500 dancers from nine countries including Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates and hosts Việt Nam .
The festival is held every three years to promote cooperation in the field of culture and arts between Việt Nam and countries around the world. It also provides Việt Nam with opportunities to introduce and promote the value of Vietnamese dance to international friends.
Leading dancers from Việt Nam National Opera and Ballet (VNOB) will perform the ballet Đông Hồ at the festival. The ballet is choreographed by Nguyễn Ngọc Anh and is based on Đông Hồ folk paintings. It will feature soloists Phan Lương, Thu Hằng, Như Quỳnh and Đức Hiếu.
Đông Hồ paintings encapsulate traditional subjects and vividly reflect the ancient agricultural society, along with the life and practices of the rural Vietnamese people.
The Đông Hồ ballet will combine the folk-themed paintings with the melodious sound of the concerto Four Seasons of Vivaldi, rearranged by Max Richter.
Each domestic participating troupe can have one performance with a duration of no more than 30 minutes, with no limit on the number of participants.
Meanwhile, each foreign troupe can have one performance with a duration of no more than 30 minutes and the number of participants must not exceed 16 people, including the lead dancer.
Artistic leads and dancers are expected to exchange experiences in dancing and choreography at the festival.
The organisers have encouraged new performances imbued with the national cultural identity of each territory and country depicting the colours of daily life.
The first International Dance Festival was held in Huế City in 2014 and at the second, in the northern province of Ninh Bình, Vietnamese dancers pocketed four out of a total of ten gold medals.
The winners were the Military Culture and Arts College, VNOB, the northern mountainous Hà Giang Art Troupe and Sao Biển Folk Dance and Sing Theatre. The three best dancers from the festival were named as Filipino Nicole Barroso, Chinese Lu Peng and Vietnamese Nguyễn Văn Nam.
The festival is held by the Performing Arts Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and will run until August 22. - VNS
OVietnam