Inspired: Choreographer Ta Thuy Chi (right) instructs dancers from the HCM City Dance School during rehersals for To Quoc (Motherland), which will be performed on March 20 and 21. — Photo tuoitre.vn

HCM CITY (VNS) — A dance production honouring the determination of Vietnamese people in their fight for independence and freedom will premiere in HCM City to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sai Gon's Liberation and Renunciation Day, April 30.

Entitled To Quoc (Motherland), the script was written by People's Artist Ha The Dung – president of the HCM City Association of Dancing Artists, and will be staged by 40 young dancers from the HCM City Dance School.

Choreographers Luong Xuan Thanh and Ta Thuy Chi have choreographed the four-part production.

"It is not simple to express patriotic spirit through dance," Thanh said.

"We had to think about how to maintain suitable rhythm for each part of the production because the dance shouldn't present the boiling patriotic spirit all the time, it also needs some emotional scenes," he said.

Choreographer Chi, who started to study dance in Guangdong, China when she was 12 years old, said the Motherland was "a production of brave people", who dared to create a dance on a limited budget.

Scriptwriter Dung, who is also the choreography consultant, had to use all his savings for this production.

To save on expenses, the dancers even purchased materials from a wholesale market to create their own props.

To stage the suite, the young dancers of the HCM City Dance School has sweated to practice five hours everyday.

"We are not sure if Motherland will be our most successful production. We just know that we have given everything to it," she said.

According to Dung, both choreographers and the dancers were born after the war and were unfamiliar with terms such as revolution and fighting.

"However, by staging a historically-themed production, they have somehow absorbed the nation's glorious history. We hope out students at the HCM City Dance School will also learn about history through other productions," he said.

The Motherland, which is the first commercial production by the HCM City Dance School, will be staged at 8pm on March 20 and 21 at the Military Theatre, 140 Cong Hoa Street, Tan Binh District. Ticket price ranges from VND250,000 to 400,000. For more information, call 0908866700. — VNS