Published by: World Tibet Network News Friday - September 12, 1997

The Capital Times Madison Wisconsin September 10, 1997

They are Dances from the Roof of the World -- Tibet -- home of the Himalayas, the world's highest mountain range.

This should be a joyful story, of a nation that dances so close to the heavens.

But the mountains are only memories for refugees. This story is one of dogged resilience amid the longest political travesty of modern times. China invaded Tibet in 1949, and a decade later suppressed an uprising, killing more than 87,000 Tibetans. The people have fled their homeland ever since then. China has continued a policy of torture and genocide, while using the mountainous region as a military border stronghold and nuclear missile site.

In the face of this, Tibet's culture has been the lifeline of a nation defying extinction.

Soon after being exiled in the early 1960s, Tibet's revered leader, the Dalai Lama, founded the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts to preserve the nation's identity.

Perhaps someday thousands of refugees will return home. Meanwhile, the nation's artists travel worldwide to keep their cause alive.

The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts will present ``Dances from the Roof of the World,'' a concert of authentic Tibetan folk dance and music, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday at the Barrymore Theatre. Tickets are $16 in advance and $18 on the day of the show. Call 241-8633.

(The group will also perform at Folklore Village Farm in Dodgeville at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $12, with senior and youth discounts. Call 924-4000.)

As much as the Tibetan nation has suffered, the nature of its struggle may remain obscure for Americans, especially since the United States government has glossed over the human rights abuses, partly by attempting to renew most-favored-nation trading status for China. President Clinton recently refused to meet with the Dalai Lama in Washington.

So this concert is an opportunity to understand that Tibet is no political hologram -- it is real people, real history and culture. ``The historical plays and dances are performed to entertain and to demonstrate the legitimacy of Tibet's claim to independence,'' explains Norbu Choephel, a Madison-based member of the Wisconsin Tibetan Association, which is bringing the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts here.

``Their country's people are still fleeing to this day, and bringing more folk culture and artistic talent to the TIPA,'' Choephel says. With limited funding, this concert is part of a ``grass-roots tour'' of four American cities with large Tibetan communities, says Savitiri Tsering, another Madison concert organizer. The majority of proceeds will go to local Tibetan communities, who will house the troupe during the visit.[QL] The dance company -- which comes from the exiled Tibetan refugee community of Dharamsala, India -- performs authentic dances, which is a pointed political statement in itself, Choephel says.

China has attempted to plunder Tibet's culture and eradicate its identity. The communist nation is still systematically forcing Tibetans to have abortions or to marry Chinese people, and forcing celibate Tibetan monks to marry.

``And they have also learned some of our folk steps and have begun performing and even touring, using Tibetan dance which is fantasized and passed off as Chinese,'' Choephel says with disgust.

In 1992, a Chinese company performed counterfeit versions of Tibetan dance in Wausau, ``but there was much objection,'' Choephel says. ``They redid everything that a pure Tibetan group had done the previous year.'' For all this, the Tibetan dance productions do not attempt to criticize the Chinese.

The dances are neutral, to guard against offending Chinese ``who might have connections'' to the oppressive government, Choephel says. They do not want to jeopardized fellow Tibetans still in the homeland.

But that may also have to do with a ``more sophisticated approach, without having heavy-handed messages,'' says Beverly Seavey, a Madison dancer and host of a world-music program on WORT/FM radio. However, the Tibetan dance ensemble has occasionally done patriotic dances, says Seavey, who has seen them several times. Previous TIPA tours have included theater and opera segments, but this one is strictly dance, a medium with no language barrier.

The lack of translation had undermined the impact of theater performances, and Tibetan culture does not formally allow for its historical operas to be performed as segments.

Yet some dances tell their own stories, sometimes as high-spirited, comical commentaries on the sexes. In one dance, men try to milk a yak, which kicks them away but then allows the women to handle it. In another dance, women make beer from barley and the men drink it and get a bit rowdy.

``The dance in general is upbeat and very earthy,'' Seavey says. ``And at other times, it is meditative and peaceful.''

A key to the authenticity issue is that the Chinese have been unable to replicate the music and the costumes, which are often very colorful. And each dance in the concert represents a different Tibetan province. The instruments include the Tibetan flute; the lutelike dra-nyen; the yan gin, a string instrument that is hit with two sticks; and the single-string piwang, which is bowed.

The dancers are highly trained, typically beginning their study in childhood, Choephel says.

``I can only say the dances are very unique and mesmerizing, and I would compare them to `Riverdance' in that they are very rhythmic, but with far more colorful costumes.''

However, the touring ensemble is not as large as the spectacularly successful Celtic dance show. The Tibetans usually have about a dozen dancers on the stage at a time.

Seavey thinks the style is closer to Hungarian dance than Celtic. ``There's a lot of vigorous, stamping footwork and also very graceful movements by the women,'' she says. ``The men and women dance as separate groups and also interact.''

This folk dancing is much more lively than the Tibetan monk dancing that Americans have seen in recent years, Seavey says.

``The dancing is world class, and they have plenty of variety, a repertoire of 500 dances.''

The TIPA company will also perform briefly at four Madison schools on Monday.

For more information on the concert or Tibetans in Wisconsin, check the Wisconsin Tibetan Association's Web page at:

(http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/3528).