Ethnic folk dance training needs improvements including shortened training time and better background music, said professional dancers at a recent conference on ethnic folk dancing. Artist Tran Duc Vien, a retired dancing teacher, proposed to shorten existing dance training courses at art institutes throughout the country.
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Move it: Dao dancers perform in a traditional festival. Dancing teachers complain that dance students should learn more about ethnic groups before learning their dances. |
"The folk dance training schedule is too long now, which has led to a waste of time and finances," Vien said. "Concerned agencies should publish folk dances of ethnic groups in more systematically designed course books to be officially used at art institutes throughout the country."
The background music for folk dances should also be revised to be professional enough for teaching and performing, he said.
Dance teacher Pham Thanh Tung, from the Dance Department of the Military Culture and Arts College, complained on the present way of teaching folk dances in art institutes.
"Dance teachers now just tend to guide students to imitate their gestures," he said. "Students themselves have not yet been made aware of nor developed any profound understanding of the ethnic groups' culture reflected in their dances.
"I think young dance teachers like me should be equipped with knowledge of ethnic groups and the folk dances we teach so that we can give students general knowledge about the groups before teaching them the dances of those groups."
Other participants in the conference agreed that folk dances were increasingly important in preserving traditional cultural values, but the training was beset with shortcomings. According to artist Ha The Dung, director of the HCM City Dance College, the biggest hindrance was the limited number of folk dance trainers.
"Furthermore, the teaching materials are also insufficient. There are only folk dances for 18 ethnic groups collected out of 54 groups throughout the country," Dung said.
Artist Nguyen Van Quang, director of the Viet Nam Dance College, mentioned the difficulty in recruiting students for the field.
"Today's youth prefer other types of arts," he said. "Some meeting the criteria on appearance and talent just take the entrance exams for fun and are not serious about studying even if they pass."