On 17th of August Tibetan House invited Dzogchen Community members to perform Khaita Joyful Dances at the festival in Moscow. A group of dancers performed in Stary Arbat (a famous pedestrian street in Moscow always busy with citizens and tourists) with a beautiful program which was repeated twice.
The performance consisted of three parts: two dances in traditional Tibetan costumes, one dance in modern costumes and a mini workshop for the audience.
In the first part six of us performed in traditional Tibetan dresses with long sleeves dancing these two dances: I.01.08 Dendrèl Sánbo Lithang Dance and I.06.02 Kombo.
“Dendrèl Sánbo” – the name of this dance is translated from Tibetan as “Good omen”.
The dance “Kombo” is connected with the joyful song about offering chang from the same-name region in Tibet.
Then the second group of four dancers performed another dance – II 03.06 Dun-gyod. This dance is more modern, but most of the movements are precisely connected with the meaning of the song. It’s name “Dun-gyod” is translated from Tibetan as “Move forward”. It is an invitation to all Tibetans to go ahead, not to remain still, to unify and keep their commitment in preserving the rich heritage of their ancestors.
At the end we chose a simple and joyful dance for everybody to learn – II.03.02 Nagchu Gorshey. “Nagchu Gordro” is a circle dance from Nagchu. It is based on the song about the treasures of this region in Tibet – mountains and forests, horses and yaks, gold and silver, etc.
All these dances are based on the songs of young Tibetan musicians.
With their help, in the dance, we could tell people about some of the values of Tibetans: enjoying life, saving the heritage of ancestors and appreciating the treasures of the Tibetan Land.
Most of us had already performed with Khaita Joyful Dances but we had never had a public workshop before. It was the first time we tried to show and explain the movements to unknown people from the stage, and it was the most interesting part of the performance. We were supported by Dzogchen Community members in Moscow who visited the festival and danced with us. Even some of the people passing by happily joined us in the circle dance which later transformed in the kind of “chain” going beyond the dance ground and moving freely gathering more participants.
We are infinitely grateful to our precious Master for the opportunities he is giving to us.
Khaita Joyful Dancers in Moscow.
