Wudang Huagun Dance shines at ICH event

Students perform the Huagun Dance during the event. [Photo/WeChat account of Wudang district]

The inheritors of the Huagun Dance perform with passion. [Photo/WeChat account of Wudang district]

Kabao Huagun Dance, a provincial intangible cultural heritage (ICH), appeared at the Guiyang city and Gui'an New Area Intangible Cultural Heritage Promotion and Rural Cultural Showcase Event on Nov 2.

The dance, from Wudang district in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, is a traditional Miao ethnic dance in which young Miao men and women use flower-decorated sticks as performance props.

Invited to be the opening performance for the event, the Huagun Dance offered visitors a rich cultural experience. The dance was performed by ICH inheritors from Wudang's Xiaba town and students from Xiaba Nine-Year School.

Students from Xiaba Nine-Year School have been performing the Huagun Dance for 15 years. In 2009, the dance was introduced as a specialized curriculum at the school, with heritage inheritors invited to teach on campus. Through ongoing exploration, the traditional dance has been creatively adapted into a "Huagun exercise", which students practice daily during their breaks. The school now has a traditional dance troupe of teachers and students and an innovative flower stick exercise team that represented Wudang in several major showcase events this year.