When the spirit moves you

The capital played host to the fifth installment of the Chen Xiang folk series, Cheng Yuezhu reports.

Before a show at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on May 21, groups of artists in ethnic costumes began dancing jovially in the theater lobby, turning the space into an unlikely venue for an impromptu celebration of folk culture.

The dancers were students from the Beijing Dance Academy's Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance Department. Under the instruction of teachers from the academy and local dance inheritors, together they presented the fifth installment of the academy's folk dance series, Chen Xiang, on May 21 and 22.