Dancers open Baoshan folk arts festival

HUNDREDS of dancers in exotic costumes took part in a grand parade in Baoshan yesterday to launch its International Folk Arts Festival.

Foreign artists from a dozen countries joined with local performance groups for the march down Mudanjiang Road.

Highlights included traditional dance troupes from Uzbekistan, India, Mexico and Columbia, as well as folk arts groups from Russian, Mexico, Egypt, Poland, Bulgaria and Latvia. Local folk artists performed shadow puppetry, acrobatics, drums and dragon dances.

The month-long festival will run until November 25, and features performances in streets, campuses, shopping malls and other public venues.

The 136 shows and events are expected to attract an audience in the millions.

The more than 300 foreign artists will not only perform at local sub-districts and towns in Baoshan but have been invited to experience the local lifestyle today.

The New Zealand Maori art group will stay in a local village house in Luojing Town.

Also performing during the festival are famous local artists including Gu Haohao, director of the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, Xin Lili, director of Shanghai Ballet, as well as Peking Opera performers Shi Yihong and Wang Peiyu.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization Forum was held in Baoshan before the parade with the theme cultural promotion.

More than 300 government officials and experts from both home and abroad shared knowledge and proposals to promote cultural exchanges and tourism development.

Since 1995, the folk arts festival has brought together 125 cultural and art troupes from 51 countries and regions. Nearly 3,000 artists from all over the world have participated in the festival, according to the Baoshan government.