Kunming Indigenous Peoples Dance Troupe from China tours Taiwan

Invited to participate in May's Taipei Indigenous Peoples Festival (臺北市原住民文化祭兩岸), but forced to cancel due to the SARS outbreak and nearly forced to postpone its arrival once again because of Typhoon Dujuan, the Kunming Indigenous Peoples Dance Troupe (昆明市民族歌舞團) finally touched down in Taiwan late Tuesday to undertake its long-awaited nationwide tour.

Sponsored by the Taipei City Government's (臺北市政府) Taipei Indigenous Peoples Commission (臺北市政府原住民事務委員會), the mini-tour will see the popular and colorful dance troupe performing in Taitung, Kaohsiung, Chiayi and Penghu.

The tour will come to a climatic and rich finale in Taipei with a lavish outdoor performance when the troupe join forces with Taiwan's indigenous dance troupes and performs at Da-An Park (大安森林公園) on the evening of the mid-Autumn Festival national holiday.

Founded in Kunming in 1970, the troupe has become one of China's most traveled dance groups. As well as performing countless concerts at home the troupe has traveled the globe and performed at numerous venues in Europe and the US.

While the troupe boasts over 50 full-time members, only 27 dancers were selected for its inaugural visit to Taiwan. Along with performing, the group has also been invited to participate in a special seminar to be held at Taipei's Ketagalan Culture Center (凱達格蘭文化館), something that Luo Zhenghua (羅正華), the troupe's director, feels is an equally important part of the group's visit as the performances themselves.

"It's a great honor to have been invited to perform and especially gratifying to have been asked to participate in the Indigenous Peoples seminar," said Luo at a press conference earlier this week.

"Such exchanges are very important, as they give indigenous peoples, regardless of where they are from, the chance to develop and cultivate strong cultural ties."

The Kunming Indigenous Peoples Dance Troupe will be making its Taipei debut on Thursday, Sept. 11 at 7:30pm at Da-An Park. Admission to the outdoor concert is free.