A film produced by Việt Nam Dancers' Association portraits history of the national dance. Photo coutersy of the crew

Hà Nội — Việt Nam’s story steps onto the big screen in Huyền Sử Việt (Vietnamese Legends), a new production that threads 50 dances into a sweeping portrait of the nation’s land, people, culture and history.

Officially unveiled by the Việt Nam Dancers’ Association, the project marks a significant milestone in developing and popularising the country’s traditional dance arts on digital platforms.

The film presents representative works created over five decades since national reunification (1975–2025), tracing the flow of history, cultural heritage and national identity through the language of movement.

Huyền Sử Việt is led by the association under the artistic direction of Phạm Anh Phương, the association’s president, and is comprehensively directed and choreographed by Tuyết Minh, its permanent vice president.

“We hope the film will offer audiences different perspectives from historical and cultural value to national identity and the aesthetics of dance,” Phương said.

According to Phương, linking dances created across different periods, spaces and emotional contexts is a major challenge. Minh, however, identified a unifying thread in the continuous flow of Việt Nam’s history and cultural traditions, ensuring narrative cohesion throughout the film.

“While it is impossible to cover every historical milestone, we carefully selected symbolic events and imagery to vividly express through dance language,” Phương said.

The selection of 50 dances, he added, demonstrates the vitality and transgenerational inheritance of Vietnamese dance.

Over more than two months of filming across various locations including Ba Vì, Mộc Châu, Cát Bà, Quảng Ninh, Ninh Bình, Quảng Bình and Đà Nẵng, the production team overcame challenges related to weather, terrain and technical conditions to complete the film.

Beyond her role behind the camera, Minh also appears on screen as a dancer, narrating and bridging the past and present while connecting tradition with technology.

“Dance is humanity’s earliest language accompanying the dawn of our nation,” she said. “The film aims to portray Việt Nam as a nation that is graceful yet resilient, gentle yet indomitable.”

Notably, the dances in Huyền Sử Việt are authentic and do not use visual effects, including works made in the 1960s and 1970s.

Minh hopes the film will serve as an artistic archive preserving the essence of Vietnamese dance over the past 50 years while bringing together a dynamic and passionate community of artists dedicated to dance.

It is expected to reach broad audiences and further integrate dance into everyday cultural life. Huyền Sử Việt will be officially released on February 17, the first day of the Lunar New Year, across digital platforms. — VNS