Dance festival bridges cultures

The second Contemporary Dance Festival will take place in Hanoi on Sept. 28-29, offering the public an occasion to enjoy original contemporary dance pieces from Vietnam, Belgium and Germany.
The second Contemporary Dance Festival will take place in Hanoi on Sept. 28-29, offering the public an occasion to enjoy original contemporary dance pieces from Vietnam, Belgium and Germany.

The Goethe Institute and Wallonia-Brussels Delegation in Vietnam continue to pursue their collaboration with the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet Theatre to present the festival.

The two-day event, with the theme Europe Meets Vietnam in Contemporary Dance, hopes to promote and enhance the value of contemporary dance while creating a bridge for artists to exchange and share experiences, Almuth Meyer-Zollitsch head of the Goethe Institute said.

Vietnam National Opera and Ballet director Pham Anh Phuong said contemporary dance first appeared in Vietnam in the mid-1990s but received only reserved response from the local dance community.

Works produced prior to or around this time were almost all by Vietnamese dancers who had received training in Europe, or from Asian countries like China and India with a strong dance tradition.


"It still takes time for Vietnamese audiences to appreciate contemporary dance," Phuong said. "I hope that the festival will help them to enjoy the diverse styles of contemporary dance and become more familiar with them."

The Goethe Institute will also host an artists' talk with the participants on Sept. 30, giving the audience an opportunity to ask questions about the dance pieces.-VNA

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