Dance Along the River During the Qingming Festival

Dance Along the River During the Qingming Festival

In the Forbidden City in downtown Beijing, there is a famous painting called 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival'. It depicts in great detail the economy, culture, and customs of the Northern Song Dynasty dating back almost one thousand years. For the upcoming arts festival, the painting has been choreographed into a folk dance by a group of veteran Hong Kong artists. Liang Guocheng, the director of the performance, said that the dance displays the prosperity of the ancient capital with a modern interpretation.

"Some folk dances from the Song dynasty have been preserved to this day, and we have incorporated many factors from them into our show. By dividing the painting into different scenes, we designed a total of 18 parts of dances to dynamically show various aspects of Chinese life. Audience will see detailed portrayals such as 'willow leaves moving with the wind' and 'going to market with donkeys in spring's suburb'."