Main page About us Contact Terms & Conditions On-line Payment Site map

Mongolian art and culture. Mongolian dance

INFORMATION FOR TRAVELERS

MONGOLIA ARTS AND CULTURE

MONGOLIAN DANCE

Mongolian dance began as a ritual performance imitating the movement and manner of deities, mystical creatures and legendary heroes. Shamanist perception of the surrounding world and worshipping of Mother Nature influenced the style of ancient dancing, as well as the shape and pattern of clothing and accessories.
The great variety of folk dancing has been enriched by clans, tribes and generations of performers. Besides folk dances, there were special palace dances and religious ritual dances.

Organized professional dance performance dates from 1924. The establishment of the State Central Theater in 1931 opened a new era for professional and career dancing. In 1941, the Army dancing branch was formed, and in 1956 European dance began in Mongolia. The first generation of the Mongolian ballet dancers were trained in the USSR. B. Jamyandagva was the first ballet master of Mongolia and is the father of the national ballet.

The State Theater of Opera and Ballet was founded in 1963. Since then, over 20 world classics including "Swan Lake, "Nutcracker", "Romeo and Juliet", "Giselle", and "Don Quixote", and more than 20 national classics have been performed on the Mongolian stage by national dancers.

With the democratic changes in Mongolia beginning in the 1990s, a new generation of dancers are introducing modern dance. Despite the strivings of young talents, there are many obstacles to the development of Mongolian modern dance to an international level. They still face lack of experience, financial shortcomings, poor management of foreign relations, etc.

It is worth mentioning the traditional religious ritual dance "Tsam" as an internationally popular Mongolian performance. It is an ancient mixture of theater, dancing, ritual ceremony and of folk tales. Its uniqueness had been highly appreciated in Great Britain, Germany, France, Skandinavian countries and many other parts of the world.

TSAM - RELIGIOUS DANCES

The ancient religious mask dance, or Tsam, is a significant religious ritual which reflects Buddhist teachings through images. It is a theatrical art performed by skilled dancers wearing magnificently ornamented costumes, which represent characters of different holy figures and devils, animals, and people.
Through story, music, and dance, the wide range of personalities of the characters are depicted. To symbolize positive and negative attributes, characters from popular stories, and animals such as the Khangarid (lord of flies), lion (the king of wild animal), stag (the beauty among animals), crow (the soothsayer) and various domestic animals are immitated. Furthermore, the colors and decoration of the costumes are clues as to the nature of the personalities of the characters.

Tsam mask dancing is included in the art form called "Doigar," which embodies independent imagination, one of the ten kinds of wisdom according to ancient Indian philosophy. The Tsam dance ceremony was first introduced to Mongolia in the 8th century, when the famous Indian Saint Lovon Badamjunai was invited to Mongolia to sanctify the construction of the first Tibetan Buddhist temple, Samya. From that time, the Tsam dance was performed following the traditional teaching of Nyambdeyan, and during the 16th century, it became popular in Dash-Ihum temple Uigien Namjra and other places. Eventually, more than 500 monasteries of the 700 Mongolian monasteries had their own local variations of the ceremony.

There were two kinds of tsam dances. "Mil Bogdo" Talking Tsam died out, but the Geser tsam, famous for its elaborately rich decorations, remained. An example of the Geser tsam was the most popular tsam in Mongolia, the "Jahar tsam " or "Erleg Nomun Khan Tsam." It was first performed in 1811, and told the story of how the disciple Yamandag destroyed the aggressive Erlegs' mettalic citadels, thus taming them.

In "Khuree Tsam" or the "Tsam of the Erleg Nomun Khan," a total of 108 costumes we worn, including 21 diciples and dieties, such as Congor, Namsrai, Combo, Ochirvaany, Jamsran, Lham, and Damdinchoijoo. This tsam was staged every year on the 9th day of the last summer month, and was an important ceremony.

The person who choreographed the first tsam dance after the establishment of Erdene-Zuu monastery in Kharkhorin (Chinggis Khaan's capital city) was a Mongolian. Folk art and native wisdom played an important role in the production of the individual Tsam dances. Song and dance, music, decorative arts, and other kinds of folk art are included in the Tsam ceremony.

Despite the fact that the Mongolian Tsam dance was based on Indian folk art and was popularized in Tibet, it was highly developed in Mongolia. For this reason the Mongolian-Tibetan tsam dance, the Geser and Nomun Khan fancy-dress tsam, and Mil Bogdo's Talking Tsam will have a permanent position in the history of the world's theater arts.

TRADITIONAL MONGOLIAN DANCE

Twisted, distorted "snaky people," or contortionists, perform the type of classical Mongolian dancing probably most familiar to people outside Mongolia.
The "Bielgee" dance, or dance of the body, is particular to the people of western Mongolia. It is performed to the music of Mongolian national musical instruments, such as the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) and the yochin (similar to the xylophone.) Bielgee is traditionally performed on the rather limited space before the hearth, so the dancers make practically no use of their feet. Instead, the dancers principally use only the upper part of their bodies, and through their rhythmic movements express various aspects of their identities, such as sex, tribe, and ethic group.

Bielgee is a descriptive dance, actually a pantomime, with the dancer acting several scenes from everyday life of herders, such as milking the cow, cooking, hunting, etc. Originally, Bielgee was improvised, although the themes were set. Only much later did it become strictly regimented compositionally, with a firmly established sequence of scenes. Also, over time, Bielgee was performed in a variety of locations, including festivals in herders' tents, ceremonies by local dignitaries, and monasteries.

The first part of the Bielgee dance, called the Elkhendeg, is ritually solemn, with the dancer slowly spreading his arms, gracefully waving his hands and moving his shoulders. In the second part, called the Joroo Mori, the character of the dance suddenly changes. The body rhythmically swaying, the dancer's movements become light and challenging, in imitation of the gait of a horse.

Dances imitating the gait of a horse, such as the Shonon khar and Jamal khar, are in general very popular amongst the Derbets, Bayads, Torguts, Khotons and Zakhchins of western Mongolia. Each nationality, however, performs them in its own way. The Bayads, for instance, dance on half-bent legs, with the lower part of the body motionless. The Zakhchins squat as they dance, with the body inclined forward. The ability to dance without using one's feet at all is the ultimate achievement in the art.

Another popular Western Mongolian dance is performed with cups. You may come across old men and women in the countryside who will tell you with fascination what magnificent dancers performed it in the past when it was very much in vogue. They balanced cups full of water on their heads without spilling a single drop. The dance varies depending on whether the cups are balanced on the head, hands, or knees. The Derbets, Zakhchins and Torguts dance with the cups on their heads and the backs of their hands, while the Bayads balance the cups on their knees. Significantly, only males danced with cups on their knees. The dancers squatted as low as possible, spreading their legs apart to the width of their shoulders, which was thought improper for females to do. In olden days, the dance with cups on the knees was performed on festive occasions, such as feasts and wedding parties.

An interesting tradition arose in the past in connection with the cup dance. A group gathering in a ger on a festive occasion formed two teams and held a dancing competition. They usually started with the cups on the palms of their hands. Then they danced with cups on their heads and on their knees, which was much more difficult to do. Those who had spilled the least water from their cups were proclaimed the winners.

Each dance is distinguished by extraordinary flexibility, composition, and color. When examining the dances, it is useful to recall that the traditional manner of performing Bielgee and other dances has been handed down from generation to generation and reaches us in a somewhat modified form.

MODERN DANCE

Modern dance emerged in Mongolia in the early 90's. "Arabesque" dance center and "New Dance" groups are the pioneers of this art form in Mongolia.

BALLET

Academic Theater of Classical Art established in 1931 in the "State Central Theater." It was a beginning that would produce one of the biggest professional organizations in Mongolia. Since the 1940s and 50s the theater has been training its own specialists in Mongolia.

On the 15th of May in 1963 "State Opera Theater" made its opening ceremony with P. Tchaikovsky's opera "Evgeny Onyegin".

Since then, for over 40 years the theater has been carrying the honorable task of presenting national and classic opera and ballet to its public.

During this time they have performed more than 30 classic and national operas such as:

"Evgeny Onyegin,"
"Iolanta,"
"Queen of Spades" by Tchaikovsky,
"Chio-chio san,"
"Toska,"
"Turandot,"
"Trubadore,"
"Othello," by Pucini,
"Prince Igor" by Borodin,
"Carmen" by Bizet,
"The Barber of Seville" by Rossini,
"The Magic Flute" by Mozart and more than 30 ballets like,
"The Nutcracker," "Sleeping beauty,"
"Swan Lake" by Tchaikovsky,
"Flame of Paris," "Fountain of Bahchisaray" by Asaffiev, "Don Quixote" by Minkus, and "Spartac" by Khachiturian.

The theater regularly takes part in competitions and visits other countries with performances. For example, they successfully organized "Mongolian Opera Day" in 1981 in Ulaan-Ude and in Alma-Ata (Russian cities), and in 1999 in Ulaan Ude. In 2001 there are plans to organize Mongolian opera day in Japan.