Commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Beijing Dance Academy performed in the 2019 “Happy Chinese New Year” cultural tour from January 23 to February 7, 2019. Liu Lan, Deputy Secretary of BDA Party Committee, led the team of teachers and students from the Creative School of BDA in a performance tour of friendship to six cities in Poland, Romania and Hungary.

The group gave 8 successive performances at the Centre for Intercultural Creative Initiatives “Crossroads”, the Silesian Opera House of Bytom, the Ploiesti Theatre, the Romanian Athenaeum of Bucharest, and MUPA Budapest. Leaders and guests including the President of the Lublin Provincial Council, former President of Romania Mr. Emil Constantinescu, and Dean of the Opole Confucius Institute Sun Yingnan, attended the performance and spoke highly of the artistic excellence demonstrated by the performers. The China Media Group and the Xinhua News Agency in Poland reported on the performance.

The“Happy Chinese New Year” cultural tour is a signature project of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Since the Spring Festival of 2010, this important cultural exchange event has been launched overseas to share the Chinese New Year with people of all countries, as a way to promote Chinese culture and connect the world. The event advocates the concepts of “joy”, “harmony”, “sharing” and “blessing”, highlighting the theme of “Happy Chinese New Year for a Harmonious World”. BDA has performed in this event for three consecutive years.

　　The performed dance “Guo Feng” is inspired by “The Book of Songs”, which is widely considered as the origin of Chinese literature. Centered on love poems and extending to the life of love, the dance traces classical poetry using the symbols and images of modern consciousness, which converge spiritually through the dance itself. From “qi” to “body and mind”, and from the “culture of the body”to the “body of culture”, the essence of the dance does not lie in replicating physical moves, but the consistency of spirit, bringing alive dance moves that are at once familiar and novel.

　BDA Deputy Secretary Liu Lan presented souvenirs to local leaders.

　The tour involved many performances in different countries. After over ten days of long-distance travel, BDA teachers and students suffered from fatigue caused by jet lag and some even became sick as a result. However, they worked very hard in preparation racing against time, and finally overcame all difficulties. There were students that even performed despite injuries. The performance was a big success and further promoted the cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries, enhancing people-to-people bond under the “Belt and Road”Initiative. This event also meaningfully embodies the exchanges and cooperation between BDA and Central and Eastern European countries in recent years. It enabled more people to share in the joy and festive atmosphere of the Chinese New Year.

(Creative School  Text/Cheng Yongping  Photo/Jiang Xue)
(Editor / Du Peng)