Today was quite an exciting day for the Edu-Pals, as we experienced a glimpse of China’s traditional dancing culture. The day began as usual; the Edu-Pals met at the office, and soon began to try on our traditional “hanfu” dress; a term used to describe traditional clothing first worn by the Han Chinese people thousands of years ago. After some minor adjustments, clothing swapping, and hair styling, we were ready to hit the streets of Shenzhen in our formal wear (and of course, to indulge in a few glamour-shots before reaching our destination). It was a very unique experience travelling in the metro wearing our traditional clothing; we even managed to attract some “admirers” along the way.
Once we arrived at the dance studio, we were offered some water and admired the large mirrored rooms and adorable decorations. Soon enough, it was time for us to get into formation. We began our lesson by following the movements of our dance instructor. She offered us three, equally challenging sets of movements. We practiced each set repeatedly, diversifying our approach by gathering into smaller groups before returning to the larger formation. We each received special individual attention from our amazing instructor, who eventually changed into a hanfu to match the rest of the class. Given that the majority of us had never had any formal dance training, we admittedly struggled to master all the movements. Despite this, we all had a blast in our feeble attempt to move like elegant Chinese dancers, and we successfully learned the full dance choreography by the end of our class. Some of us were nervous to watch the final video which Luka brilliantly recorded for us (like a good “dance-mom”) and luckily, our gorgeous hanfu managed to compensate for our lack of abilities.
After our formal class was over, the dance instructor taught us some elegant poses, and skillfully organized us for a group photo-shoot. We followed her lead, and managed to make ourselves look elegant before saying goodbye to the lovely studio, and our equally lovely instructor. This will surely be an experience that the Edu-Pals will not soon forget. Although Chinese traditional dancing may not be an art obtainable in a single dance lesson, we are all extremely fortunate to be given the opportunity to learn some basic skills.
Watch the video of this event:
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