Yang Liping (center) performs the childbirth dance in the emotional section Welcoming a New Life of the show

There is an old saying in Yunnan which reads every leaf can dance, every stone can sing and even the flapping of butterflies' wings is a kind of rhythm. Now, Yang Liping, one of the best dancers in China, has gathered all the sounds from southwest China's Yunnan Province and combined them in a stage performance.

In her new work, Sound of Yunnan, Yang tries to introduce Yunnan to audiences by sharing the music of the province so rich in ethnic minorities.

Featuring percussion music and folk dance, the show is rich in the folklore culture of over 20 minority nationalities in China.

According to Yang, the show's producer and lead dancer, the nearly 100 performers are all farmers with no prior musical or dance training.

Natural instruments

On the stage, the performers make sounds of wind, rain, leaves or a drop of water with folk instruments made by them. Any object from daily life could become an instrument in the hands of these folk. They can produce a beautiful tune by blowing on a small leaf, or by blowing through a flower growing on the mountainside.

Yang told media during the promotion of the production that the aim of creating this work is to collect all things that can produce sound in Yunnan, including the unique folk instruments in the province. In addition many new instruments were made.

It took the creative team nine months to find the historical folk instruments, some of which are on the brink of extinction. For example, they found some ancient big drums made of tree trunks. Each of the drums is around 2 to 3 meters high and so big that two adults cannot get their arms around the drum. Apart from these drums, they also found some ancient drums used in the past to store spring water or wine. Other rare instruments, such as a kind of single-string instrument made of bamboo, are also used on stage.

Sound of Yunnan is the third work in which Yang shows the culture of ethnic minorities of China. Her former work Dynamic Yunnan in 2003 was a big hit since it premiered and is seen as a classic of stage performance on folk culture. Featuring more than 600 handmade costumes and stage props collected in the rural areas of Yunnan, Dynamic Yunnan helped introduce the province's unique culture to millions. The show was also staged in the United States and some European countries.

Her other work, Tibetan Riddle, in 2007 presents the Tibetan culture and spirit through her passionate and exquisite dances.

Different from Dynamic Yunnan, which brought pure folk songs and dances of minorities from Yunnan on to the stage, Yang said, Sound of Yunnan will give audiences a different surprise in the sense of hearing, vision and feeling.

She said that through Sound of Yunnan, she hopes people can appreciate the sound of nature and its soul. "In the modern world, we tend to ignore many aspects of nature, such as the singing of birds, " Yang said.

All the sounds produced on stage show the unvarnished sounds people hear in daily working life in the province, but also sounds such as a fetus' heartbeat in the mother's womb.

"Most of the sounds are familiar to people, but when they were put on the stage, they seem to have magic power and impress everyone, such as the sound of hoeing or the sounds of mill wheels and the stone millstones," Yang said.

Legendary dancer

A native of Yunnan, Yang became well known in China for her "peacock dance" more than 20 years ago, and her influence can still be seen and felt among contemporary Chinese dancers.

The 50-year-old dancer said that she loves the folk culture of her hometown very much and has an obligation to preserve the culture.

"My best memory of the childhood is the sound of bells tied on the necks of water buffalo in the mist of the early morning. This memory inspired me to create a dance called Water Buffalo's Bell in this show," Yang said.

Most dances in the performance present the scenes of people's life in Yunnan. In one section, Yang plays a pregnant woman who is about to give birth. "In some tribes in Yunnan, when women gave birth to their babies, other people would beat drums to encourage her and give her and her baby blessings, a very special custom," Yang said.

(Beijing Review August 4, 2009)