The European Pageant Week took place at the Horticultural Expo on May 9th. About ten Russian girls and their fellow dancers stepped on the Dielianhua (A Butterfly Falls in Love with a Flower) stage and presented an enthusiastic performance.

Most of the performance was of Russian dancing, melded with other European dancing cultures. Twenty-one professional young Russian dancers attracted and thrilled the spectators in all sorts of ways. In addition to the familiar dance “l(fā)e chahut” (high kicking), various other dances such as the flamenco and Egyptian belly dance enriched the traditional Russian folk dances. Dancers jumped and swirled on the stage, screamed at the audience and won warm and enduring applause.

The performance presented the latest Russian folk music. It absorbed the essentials of classical, traditional, modern and popular dance and expressed the new energetic lifestyles of youth. The actors’ impromptu dances with tense or soft background music fully aroused the spectators. “To express Russian folk style and bring happiness to tourists, we have selected these bright and energetic dances,” said Hu Die, the man in charge of the performance.

“The dance performance is rhythmic and festive, we all love it,” said Li Fang, a tourist. “With European landscape on the large LED screen, it seems that we are walking in European streets.”

Edited by Nathan Place