Dance!

Last evening I attended a demonstration of Chinese Dance performed by Mike Qi and his family at the Madison, Library, Madison, IN. How beautiful these dances are! The dances were so different from area to area, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Mongolia, several southern area. I was surprised to find as many similarities to belly dance or flamenco as I did. Inner Mongolia's dance, for instance, they said was from the nomadic tribes of China who reminded me of the Romany people , also somewhat nomadic during certain periods of history, and both use a lot of upper shoulder movement--showing off great strength and flexibility there. I saw a "windmill" movement like that found in Romany dancing. However, from the shoulders down, these two contrasting peoples are very contrasted as the Mongolian dance was very perpendicular to the ground and extremely like ballet. Also, saw no snake arms in the I. M. dance demonstration, but undulating "bird" arms!