Chinese folk dances are the specialty of the Purple Swans Dance Troop (founded in October 2014 by dance professionals and enthusiasts, including Pingry parents). At Pingry, they treated the audience to “Celebrating the Prosperous New Year with Boundless Joy,” a Lunar New Year dance that portrays a traditional celebration by Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in China. The Yangko dress, worn by the dancers, originates in northeastern China. According to Purple Swans lead dancer Dr. Lei Chen P ’20, “Red and green are the two main colors of the dress—red representing joy and good luck in Chinese tradition, and green symbolizing life and people’s best hopes for the harvest. Various accessories, including the headdress flowers, the fabric hanging from the belt, the fans, and the colorful ribbons, make the dancers’ figures more plentiful and provide them different characteristics for the expression of their inner joie de vivre and happiness.”

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- The Pingry Review, Summer 2016