Yen Bai to host world biggest Xoe folk dance
Under the framework of Muong Lo Cultural and Tourism Festival 2019, 5,000 people will join in a mass performance of a Xoe folk dance, in Yen Bai Province on September 20.
A mass performance of a Xoe folk dance will be held in Yen Bai Province on September 20. (Illustrative image/VOV)
The performance is expected to set a Guinness world record for the biggest Xoe dance ever staged. The one-week festival will open with a show entitled “Quintessence from Legend” which brings together many popular artists.
The programme will be broadcast live on VTV1 and VTV5 channels of Vietnam Television at 8 pm on September 20.
In addition, a series of activities, including street art performances, a tourism and food fair, art exhibitions and a paragliding festival, will be held during the festival.
Xoe Thai is a unique type of traditional dance that is associated with and plays a significant role in the daily life of Thai ethnic communities in the northwest of Vietnam, especially in the provinces of Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Son La and Yen Bai.
It is performed in various community activities from festivals to funeral rituals.
There are about 30 Xoe dances, which have been developed, protected and handed down intact through generations over hundreds of years, including xoe quat (xoe dance with a fan), xoe khan (xoe dance with a scarf), xoe non (xoe dance with a conical hat) and many others with contents reflecting community activities and expressing the Thai people’s emotion.
With gentle and alluring rhythms, dancers usually form a circle around a festive flame and move to the sound of melodic traditional music.
The Xoe Thai dance has been recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage since 2015, and a profile will soon be submitted to UNESCO for recognition as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
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