The Basics
Guozhuang is one style of traditional Tibetan folk dance that is performed by a group of people dancing in a circle. In Tibet it was traditionally performed around a bonfire, for celebrations and fun, and for everyone to participate in. In recent years this dance has become popular in all of China, as the Chinese government has been promoting the arts and celebrating folk traditions as a way to increase solidarity between the many different ethnic groups that make up the population of China.
Ashley Cao grew up in Nantong, China, and performed in many dance competitions at school, where she often won first place for the entire city! Ashley shared the following about her experiences with dance as a child, and one of her favourite memories:
As a child, I lived in Nantong, a coastal city in East China's Jiangsu Province. Nantong now has about 140 primary schools, 89 middle schools and 48 high schools. It is the best city for basic education in China (high rate of high scores in the annual university entrance exam and high rate of admissions). The school attaches great importance to the moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic education of students, and provides various supports for the all-round development of students. Every year on June 1, International Children's Day, the city will hold cultural performance competitions including dance. I have won first place in this competition several years in a row.
Each school selects a program to participate in the competition. I have represented the school in competitions since the first grade of elementary school. I remember one year of the show: 20 friends pulled 10 cowhide tendons, and I jumped on these 10 cowhide tendons by myself. The little friends made the colorful cowhide tendons look like the waves of the sea, and I jumped and flew on the cowhide tendons like a petrel; in a while, we made a shape like a peacock opening screen, I am the head of a peacock; we spell it out Pentagram, I'm dancing in the middle -- we won the first prize in this show. Decades later, old alumni still tell me how they felt at the time: You are so beautiful. It's like a fairy flying down from the sky.
In these videos, Ashley performs a dance called “Zhutu” (“Good Wishes”), which is a dance from the central region of Tibet, with slow, graceful movements. She then teaches us the basic steps for a circle dance from the northern region of Tibet, which has faster movements and is called “Xianghui” (“Meeting of Friends”). Ashley’s son Jackie Ren joins her to help share background information about Tibetan folk dancing, guozhuang and the traditional clothing Ashley is wearing to perform her dance.
A Note for Teachers
It’s always a good idea to take some time to learn these basic dance steps yourself before you try it with your learners, so you can help them through any tricky parts. If you find you or your learners need some extra practice before moving to the next step, it’s always okay to pause and review!
And it can be difficult to visualize what a circle dance is really supposed to look like without the circle! It may help your learners to see this example of Ashley teaching the dance to the learners at Amherst Cove Consolidated School:
Below you can see the learners at Amherst Cove give their performance of the Guozhuang dance. A video of a professional group performance of this dance can be found via the Oliver’s Song website, with music for the students to follow along with once they have learned the basic steps.
Extension Activities
Once learners have had some success with the basic steps of “Xianghui,” they are invited to pause and improvise some of their own movements to go along with the music. This could be performed in ABA form: traditional-improvised-traditional.
Circle dances are a very common style of folk dancing from around the world, as they are often simple enough to allow everyone in the community to participate. Learners are invited to make connections with other circle dances they may have learned or experienced, and even try creating their own simple circle dances in groups.
About Ashley
Ashley Cao received regular gymnastics and dance training in her childhood. She was always a key member of the school's dance team, and participated in student dance competitions every year in Nantong (a city with a population of nearly 8 million), often winning the city's first place as the main role of our school's dance program. Ashley performs dances and other programs in various activities almost every year. In PEI, Ashley participated in the DiverseCity festival for several years, performing dances (solo, lead and group dance).
