Thursday, December 20, 2007

Thousand-Hand Guan Yin



I first saw the dance “Thousand hands of Guan Yin”, (Kwan Yin) during the Chinese spring festival 2005. The dance took me completely by surprise and I was so impressed by the grace and beauty of the dance I cried. I did not know then that all the dancers where deaf and dumb and from the China's Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe who have a website at:

CCTV Internationl (Chinese television in English), has an interesting profile on the Disabled People's Performing Art troupe:

The lead dancer is Tai Lihua, Tai only became aware that she was deaf at the age of 5. She had been playing a game of tag with her friends. But when it came her turn to be blindfolded and chase the other children, Tai suddenly realized she was unable to do so. She got scared and couldn't stop crying.

The little girl had actually lost her hearing at age 2, when she had a high fever.

How she became a dancer was a direct result of her enrollment at age 7 in a school for children with disabilities. There she met a teacher who would tap her heels rhythmically on the floor to communicate with the children, since they could feel the vibrations.

Tai's father, seeing how inapt his daughter was at the "tapping" form of communication, bought the child some dancing shoes. Tai says "The shoes gave me an ability to express myself without words".

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Guan Yin is the Bodhisattva of compassion for further information please forfurther information visit:



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