TOWNSHEND — Leland & Gray's Journey East program will again host a performing arts delegation from Inner Mongolia.
The 18 students and teachers from the Arts College of Inner Mongolia University arrived in the West River Valley a week ago.
The Arts College is the premier performance-oriented school in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of over 33 million people, and the performers in the delegation, aged 17 to 22 are the “cream of the crop.”
Members of the delegation just returned from two days at the University of Vermont. There, they collaborated with University of Vermont dance and music students and performed to a full house at Ira Allen Chapel on the UVM campus.
They presented workshops for students at Leland & Gray as well as at Townshend and Marlboro elementary schools shortly after their arrival.
The delegation will conduct additional workshops and performances of ethnic Mongolian music and dance throughout southern Vermont over the next two weeks.
A unique feature of this year's program is the student band, Zamuqi, consisting of throat singers, players of horsehead fiddles and stringed instrument like the dombra and guzheng, and a singer specializing in traditional long-tune singing.
The seven-person band will offer renditions of traditional Mongolian music plus original pieces composed by the band's director, Mr. Saqirila.
Emotionally and physically powerful performances based on the Shamanistic tradition by male dancers Batu and Bayindalai are unlike any dances previously performed in the area.
Mongolian dances such as the bowl dance and a unique interpretation of the Buliyate culture are performed by Ms. Wang Yijie, Ms. Oudenggaowa and Ms. Wu Jia, directed and accompanied by dance teacher Ms. Nuomin.
Upcoming events include performances:
• Friday, Oct. 19, for the Leland & Gray student body at 9 a.m. and at 12:30 p.m. for the Windham Central Supervisory Union Elementary Schools.
• Saturday, Oct. 20, at 7:30 p.m. for the West River Valley community in the Leland & Gray Gym.
• Monday, Oct. 22, at Woodstock High School.
• Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 1:55 p.m., at Brattleboro Union High School.