An ancient royal dance that has not been performed for more than 80years has been successfully restored by a fifty-nine-year-old man in theRed River Delta province of Thai Binh.
Bat dat is a dance towelcome victory and pray for a peaceful life. Originally it wasperformed by 64 dancers divided into eight rows, said Ngo Trong Phan,who lives in Quynh Phu district, An Khe commune, Thai Binh province.
He has spent nearly 10 years compiling documents and interviewing elderly people about the dance.
When he was put in charge of managing the Hiep Luc communal house, Phan, 59, was determined to revive the dance.
"Despitefierce wars against foreign invaders and other hardships, our ancestorshanded down many traditional dances. If we can't preserve this valuableculture, we won't be doing justice to our ancestors," he said.
In2002, he began collecting documents about the dance and sought outelderly villagers who once enjoyed it. Among them was Ngo Van Rien, whodied last year at the age of 100, and Ngo Trong At, Ngo Quang Quang andNgo Quang Thiem, who were skilled drummers during the offering ceremony.
"Rien told me about the dance while Thiem gave me many details of the dance. Their help was crucial," Phan said.
In addition, he went to ask many others in surrounding villages about the dance.
"Someof them still remembered, while others had only vague memories. Butthey were all helpful for me in restoring the dance," Phan said.
In2012, Phan finished compiling documents and simplified the dance from64 dancers to 16. However, he found it difficult to find dancers becausealmost all the women in his commune are farmers and are very busyworking in the fields.
"I had to go to each woman's house to invite them to join the dance group," Phan said.
Phanand his troupe practise whenever they are free, during day or night.With assistance from the Institute of Culture and Arts, the troupeperformed at many ceremonies and festivals at Hai Ba Trung Temple inThai Binh and Le Chan Temple in the port city of Hai Phong.
"Wehelp to preserve the ancient custom. It's also an opportunity for ruralfarmers like me to visit other areas," said dancer Ngo Thi Hoan.
The troupe uses some of the money they earn to improve their performance and donates the rest to charity.
Legendhas it that the dance appeared during the first century CE and wascreated by the Trung sisters of legend. After defeating the Haninvaders, the sisters held a large feast for their troops and performedthe dance.
General Le Do, who helped the sisters fight theinvaders and came from Dong Luc (the old name for Hiep Luc), recordedthe dance and handed it down to villagers. In the year 43 CE, Do died inbattle and people in his village built a temple to worship him. Theofficial worship festival is held on the 10th lunar day of the eighthlunar month, his birthday.
Phan is now trying to preserve hat ong folk songs. Despite being unpaid, he feels the result is rewarding enough.-VNA