Sharing Music and Dance

On two recent afternoons the SSTers learned and shared music and dance with Professor Wang Xiao and her students from the College of Music. Ms. Wang introduced Chinese musical notation and explained the history of two popular folk songs, “Kangding Qingge” (Love Song of Kangding) and “Mo Li Hua” (Jasmine Flower), and taught them to the SSTers.  Ms. Wang had arranged for some of her students and another music faculty member to perform traditional works for us, and then she invited Goshen students to sing and play in return.

On the following afternoon, Mrs. Wang introduced two folk songs from western China, songs that are rooted in the Uighur and Uzbek ethnic minority communities.  “Alamuhan” is a Uighur love song and “Xian Qi Ni De Gai Tou Lai” (Lift the Veil) is a song closely associated with an Uzbek folk dance. After learning these songs, two dance students demonstrated and then taught us the dance.  Finally, they asked for volunteers (some SSTers were “volunteered” by their friends!) to perform the dance for the larger group.