Ancient dances, an exceptional art genre that stems from the old capital city ofThang Long, are being revived after a long time in oblivion.

So far noscientific research has been carried out to track down the exact period of timewhen Hanoi ancient dances were introduced, yet their presence in folk verses,proverbs and ancient bibliographies speaks their age. Images of dance moves areeven chosen to be designs and patterns sculptured on bronze drums.

NguyenVan Bich, President of the Hanoi Dancers’ Association, said Hanoi has nearly 100ancient dances closely linked with the city’s history that fall into threecategories: folk, royal and religious dances.

Some of the dances howeverhave withered under the impacts of time and historical upheavals, Bich said.Only about 30 dances still remain intact, mostly folk dances that usually takeplace in traditional festivals in villages around Hanoi.

One of theunique dances that is associated with the spirit of Thang Long ancient capitalis “Chay co” from Trieu Khuc village, Thanh Tri district. The dance is performedin village festivities where amateur artists holding flags, dancing and runningin the boisterous sound of drums and castanets.

The dance displays thepower of solidarity of the Trieu Khuc villagers in their fights against enemies.

Phu Nhieu village of Phu Xuyen district meanwhile is famous for the “Baibong” dance which is a special form of “ca tru”.

Dancers sport a specialhat with a cotton ball glued on top, which explains the name of the dance. InVietnamese, “bong” means cotton and “bai” means a way of doing things. Whileswirling around, dancers continuously unfold two large Chinese-style fans andloudly sing “ca tru” melodies. The dance reflects daily life activities offarmers and praises love.

Dancers are backed up with at least eighttraditional musical instruments, including two big drums, a “dan day”(bottomless lute), a “ty ba” (four-string lute), a three-chord lute, a “phach”(a bamboo instrument with two wooden stick), a gong and a cylindrical drum.

Since setting stage for a “bai bong” dance troupe is very expensive,only powerful “giao phuong” (large communities of “ca tru” performers in eachlocality) can afford it.

Aside from the above-cited dances, the-thencapital city of Thang Long and Hanoi nowadays are the cradle of variousreligious dances such as “Luc cung,” a six floral lamp worship offering, and “Bobo” of Dong Anh district, the “Dragon” dance of Phu Dong village, Gia Lamdistrict, and other districts.

In a wish to preserve this unique culturaltrait, the Hanoi Dancers’ Association has cooperated with relevant agencies toimplement a project on restoring and promoting ancient dances of ThangLong-Hanoi. Under the project, amateur dancers from villages in Hanoi aregetting together to restore ancient dances that have been forgotten and bringthem to stage in local communities.

The association will produceaudiovisual products and publications about selected ancient and new dances tore-introduce those special dances among the local audience and promote themabroad.

Several dances will be chosen to perform to celebrate the 1,000thanniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi next year, among which the “Luc cung” dance willbe performed by Most Venerable Thich Quang Hy, the master of Minh Quang pagodain Dong Da district and other monks at the monument of Kinh Ly Thai To./.