March 29, 2007

Thousand Hand Guan Yin

There is an awesome dance, called the Thousand Hand
Guan Yin, that is making the rounds across the Net.
Considering the tight coordination required, their
accomplishment is nothing short of amazing (even if
they weren't deaf).

All 21 of the dancers are completely deaf.
Relying only on signals from trainers at the four
corners of the stage, these extraordinary dancers
deliver a visual spectacle that is at once intricate
and stirring. Its first major international debut
was in Athens at the closing ceremonies for the
2004 Paralympics. But it had long been in the
repertoire of the China Disabled People's Performing
Art Troupe and had traveled to more than 40
countries.

Its lead dancer is 29 year old Tai Lihua, who has a
BA from the Hubei Fine Arts Institute.

The video was recorded in Beijing during the Spring
Festival celebrations [in 2005].

If this link below doesn't work for some reason, you can
Google Thousand Hand Guan Yin, and find it that way.
YouTube also has it but it is a smaller window.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=824547363722802138

The video quality is not great, but you can see what's going on. It's really incredible.

Posted by Shelby at March 29, 2007 12:50 PM
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