Aheqi county, in West China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and bordering on Kyrgyzstan, has bound a cultural cooperation relationship with Wuxi city, in East China’s Jiangsu province and the middle Yangtze River delta plain since 2007.
Nearly 100 officials, teacher and doctors from Wuxi went to Aheqi to assist local development during the 8last eight years. Lin Xiaoyi, the leader of Wuxi assistant team in Aheqi, chose to stay another three years after he completed his first term. He works as a deputy county Party secretary in Aheqi and made every effort to help promote local culture.
A conversation with Deng Xinping, director of Aheqi Dance Troupe, in the end of 2013, gave Lin the idea to promote Manas, the masterpiece of Kirzigi people.
Lin asked Deng if there was anything regretful in her decades of dancing life. Deng said, “Manas is the cultural treasure of Kirgiz ethnic group, but there is not any presentable performance to show it to the outside areas.”
After three months of discussion and contact, Lin managed to pair Aheqi Dance Troupe with Wuxi Arts and Performance Group, to create a Kirgiz dance drama – Manas.
Xinjiang experts came to Wuxi for script writing in March, 2014. Wuxi dance creation group went to Aheqi for inspiration and cultural experience in May, 2014. The director group visited several times to Jusupu Mamayi (passed away in June,2014), the honored “live Homer”, the only one who can sing the whole Manas epic of eight parts and 230,000 lines.
On March 4, 23 Kirgiz dancers from Aheqi Dance troupe arrived in Wuxi and started the rehearsal with 40 other Wuxi dancers. The Kirgiz dancers have an average age of 27, the youngest among whom is 22. Thirty percent of them can’t speak any of Chinese, and they went through the cold temperature in March and different eating culture in Wuxi.
Manas dance drama is totally cooperated by Aheqi and Wuxi dancers. Every dance is performed by half Kirgiz dancers and half Han dancers. It debuted in Wuxi on May 18 and will join in the third China Xinjiang International Dance Festival in August.
