Despite coming to Vietnam in the 1990s, contemporary dance has lagged behind many other arts.
To date, for lots of Vietnamese audiences, contemporary dance is still a new art. Many of them come to contemporary dance programmes just for curiosity.
At a press conference held in Hanoi on September 27 prior to the 2nd Contemporary Dance Festival, Dr. Pham Anh Phuong, Director of the Vietnam National Opera & Ballet Theatre said the introduction and promotion of contemporary faces many difficulties in Vietnam. Local audiences are more familiar with classical ballet, therefore more time is needed to popularise contemporary dance.
Despite coming to Vietnam in the 1990s, contemporary dance has lagged behind many other arts
Currently, Vietnam has no separate troupe specialising in contemporary dance performance. Artists now perform both classical ballet and contemporary dance forms.
“Dance artists in general and contemporary dancers in particular encounter many difficulties due to their limited incomes, which explains why a number of them move to other areas or have to do part-time jobs for extra income, including those who trained abroad,” he admitted.
Contemporary dance has been taught at the Vietnam Dance Collage since 2004 and also at some art schools, but so far the country has not yet established an official contest for this art. Vietnamese contemporary dance programmes depend on non-governmental organisational funding, however, over recent years, international funding for Vietnam’s art sector has fallen to due to the impact of the global economic downturn.
Phuong noted, “We want to launch many contemporary dance programmes, but we don’t have the right to decide the budget. It depends on the Department for Performing Arts under the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism.”
According to Mr. Phuong, this is the second time the Contemporary Dance Festival has been held in Vietnam, however, it has only attracted the participation of artists from Vietnam, Belgium and Germany, the same to last year event.
Choreographer Quach Phuong Hoang, who received a contemporary dance MA in France, was cited by Sai Gon Tiep Thi Newspaper as saying that since returning to Vietnam, he has introduced just three long works to local audiences. While it’s a modest figure in terms the Vietnamese contemporary dance situation, but is much more than compared to the time he was in France.
Graduating from Vietnam Dance College, famous Choreographer Ngoc Anh took extensive training courses in Hong Kong. He has won man local and international choreography prizes. Now, he lives and works in London, and sometimes comes back Vietnam for choreography.
Anh shared that, many Vietnamese qualified choreographers are working abroad, but they are often not invited to return the country for the work, instead programme organisers often invite foreigners. He expects that Vietnam could have a professional contemporary dance troupe to compete at international contests and create a “Made-in-Vietnam” dance. Currently, China and Japan have their own contemporary dance companies.
The 2nd Contemporary Dance Festival entitled “Europe meets Vietnam in Contemporary Dance 2012” is jointly held by the Vietnam National Opera & Ballet Theatre, Goethe Institute and Wallonia-Brussels Delegation in Vietnam on September 28-29 evenings in Hanoi.
The Vietnamese troupe will present “Minus”, a piece created by Chorographer Ngoc Anh.
