HÀ NỘI – A performance combining contemporary dance with Vietnamese traditional and ethnic music, entitled Nón (Conical Hat), will be held for the first time in Hà Nội next week.

Last year, the dance attracted a large audience in HCM City. Last December, it was also performed in front an audience of 300 ministers, vice-ministers, cultural attachés, ambassadors and other dignitaries on the closing event of the Development for Europe programme in Luxembourg.

The show is held with the participation of a group of independent artists, including choreographer and dancer Vũ Ngọc Khải, music composer Ngô Hồng Quang and programme producer Văn Quý Ngọc Ái.

Organisers said that the artists have kept the skillful mixture of interesting body movements in the contemporary dance with the melodic flow performed on chiêng dây (string gong), đàn tính (a three-stringed instrument from the Tày ethnic minority), đàn môi ba lá (three-piece mouth harp), đàn môi một lá (one-piece mouth harp), đàn bầu (monochord), with singing.

Nón’s concept was built based on the idea and meaning of “round sky, square earth,” which is also the icon of the “square green rice cake” (bánh chưng) and “round white rice cake” (bánh dầy) that expresses the perfect connection of yin and yang – Việt Nam’s spiritual belief.

Moreover, the two simple traditional cakes themselves embrace the elegant and subtle traits of the old culture, “learn to eat, learn to say, learn to wrap, learn to open”. These are the connective lines between the two artists - who have been living abroad for years - and their origins. It helps them to answer the question, “Who am I in a strange foreign land?”

By using body language, music and a way of expressing familiar elements, they are able to share their Vietnamese experiences and feelings while they have been living abroad for years. Thanks to those explorative journeys to the colourful and eventful outside world, they have discovered more love of the cradle where they were born, and more pride in introducing the most special features of Vietnamese culture to the world.

In addition, Nón also explores the spiritual life of human beings in the modern era where technology dominates and possesses everything with an increasingly loneliness.

In order to bring contemporary dance closer to the audience, as well as to exchange experiences with colleagues, two workshops for dance and traditional music lovers will be held next weekend in HCM City.

The show will be performed at the French Cultural Centre, L’Espace, located at 24 Tràng Tiền Street. The two following concerts will be held in HCM City on July 26 and 27, at IDECAF (Institute for Cultural Exchange with France), located at 28 Lê Thánh Tôn Street, District 1.— VNS