Sorceress of Dance: Yang Liping

Yang Liping, of the Bai Ethnic Minority in Dali, Yunnan Province , grew up with her two sisters, brother and mother. Despite her parents' divorce, she developed a positive attitude towards life and art. Although Yang loved to dance since she was very young, she was never officially enrolled in a dance school. She entered the Xishuangbanna Song and Dance Troupe in 1971.
Yang the artist, coming from the deep mountains, has sometimes been dubbed the "sorceress" of dance. In Taiwan and Southeast Asia, she is also known as the "Goddess of Dance." Yang's pure and mellow dance style is a result of her unique figure, intelligence and artistic inspirations from the aboriginal and natural cultural landscape.
Yang won the 1979 Best Performance Award of Yunnan Province in the leading role of the large-scale national dance drama "Peacock Princess." Yang created and performed "The Soul of Birds" in 1986 which helped establish her reputation and acquire various awards. At the closing ceremonies of the Asian Games in 1990, Yang performed the dance again. In May 1992, she became the first dancer from the mainland to Taiwan. In 1993, her "Two Trees" won the first prize in the CCTV (China Central Television) Spring Festival Party. Yang has traveled to Singapore, the Philippines, United States, Canada, Taiwan and Japan to engage in art communications.
The large-scale dance drama "Dynamic Yunnan" choreographed and directed by Yang Liping will be performed in Beijing from April 10 to 16. The detailed information for the performance is as follows: