Whirling like a flower: the enduring grace of the Hu Xuan Dance

The Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai once wrote, "A Hu girl's beauty is like a flower, smiling in the spring breeze as she serves wine" – words that evoke the Hu Xuan Dance, a dazzling whirl born over a millennium ago along the Silk Road.

Known also as the Sogdian Whirl, the Hu Xuan Dance was introduced through cultural exchanges with Central Asia and flourished during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The dance embodied the era's openness and spirit of integration, becoming a lasting symbol of China's artistic exchange and inclusive heritage.

The essence of the dance is its constant, graceful rotation. A performer needs only a small space – sometimes just a rug – to spin rapidly, their sleeves billowing and skirts tracing elegant arcs through the air.

In contemporary reinterpretations, dancers bring the Hu Xuan Dance from cave walls to the stage. Adorned with countless silk strings that evoke the ancient routes and costumed in Dunhuang's signature hues – burnt red, stone green and lapis lazuli blue – these performances breathe new life into the legacy of cross-cultural exchange.

(Photos show a dancer recreating the Huxuan dance, wearing clothes inspired by the Dunhuang murals. /CGTN)