Xứ
Việt Nam 
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Modern and contemporary dance
Modern and contemporary dance Classical ballet has developed to a high
level in Viet Nam, with leading Vietnamese choreographers creating a large
body of distinctive Vietnamese dance works by fusing traditional dance and
movements from classical theatre with the techniques of western ballet. The
Viet Nam Opera-Ballet Theatre (Nha hat Nhac Vu kich Viet Nam)
incorporates a full ballet company and orchestra. A contemporary dance troupe
has recently been set up within the company to provide a vehicle for the work
of its acclaimed young choreographers’ group.
Ballet and contemporary dance
Though occasionally performed in major cities by touring companies from
Europe, western classical ballet made no significant impact on Việt Nam
during the French colonial period.
 However, a dedicated Việt Nam Song
Dance and Music Company (Nhà hát Ca múa nhạc
Việt Nam) was set up in the Việt Bắc Resistance Zone
in 1951, and in the aftermath of the First Indochina War several young
traditional Vietnamese dancers from this company were invited to go and study
the techniques of classical ballet in Beijing, People's Republic of China. A
number of these returned to set up the Ballet Department of the Việt Nam
Dance School (Trường múa Việt Nam,
now the Việt Nam College of Dance) and the ballet troupe of the
newly-established Việt Nam Opera-Ballet Theatre (Nhà hát
Nhạc Vũ kịch Việt Nam) in 1959.
Thereafter Vietnamese choreographers began to create distinctive Vietnamese
dance works by fusing traditional dance and movements from classical theatre
with the techniques of western ballet, very much in the style of the Chinese
revolutionary dance-drama wuju. The
earliest examples of this genre were the 1960 ballets Xô
Viết Nghệ Tỉnh ('Soviet Nghệ Tỉnh') and
Tấm Cám, both set to original Vietnamese music scores and choreographed
by Thái Ly in collaboration with an expert from North Korea. Both of these
works received a Hồ Chí Minh Award in 2000.
 In 1964 the Việt Nam Opera Ballet
Theatre was amalgamated with the Việt Nam Symphony Orchestra and Choir
to form the new Việt Nam Orchestra, Choir and Ballet Theatre (Nhà
hát Giao hưởng, Hợp xướng, Nhạc Vũ
kịch Việt Nam). The first major homegrown Vietnamese
ballets followed - these were Nguyễn Việt's Phá
lao ('Destroying the Prison'), set to music by Đỗ Dũng,
and Xuân Đình's Chị Sứ ('Miss
Sứ'), set to music by Hoàng Văn. These
important works were followed after Reunification by Trần Đình
Quỳ's Hồ Gươm ('Sword Lake'), set
to music by Cao Việt Bách, Kim Tiến's Mùa hoa lê
biên giới ('Pear Blossom Season on the Border'), set to music by
Đôn Truyền, Xuân Đình's Mùa hoa đào
Kỷ Dậu ('Peach Blossom Season in the Year of the Rooster'),
set to music by Đàm Linh, and Đoàn Long's Giai
điệu niềm tin ('Melody of Belief'), set to Hoàng
Việt's Symphony No 1.
Throughout the 1970s, a further wave of young Vietnamese dancers went to study
in the former Soviet Union. After the Việt Nam Opera Ballet Theatre had
regained its separate identity in 1978, the Ministry of Culture of the former
USSR sent a group of classical ballet specialists to Hà Nội to help the
company stage a number of international ballet masterpieces such as Spartacus,
Giselle and Swan Lake, thereby
raising VNOBT's profile and confirming its status as Việt Nam's premiere
dance company.
 Meanwhile in the
south a number of small private ballet schools were set up in Sài Gòn during
the 1960s, mainly to teach expatriate children. However, formal dance
training did not commence in Hồ Chí Minh City until 1978, when both
traditional Vietnamese dance and classical ballet were introduced into the
curriculum of the Hồ Chí Minh City National School of Music (Trường
Quốc gia Âm nhạc Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh, now
the Hồ Chí Minh City Conservatory of Music). In 1982 northern
choreographer Trần Văn Lai founded the October Ballet Company (Đoàn
ballet Tháng mười) in the southern capital, generating new
interest in classical ballet. Four years later the dedicated Hồ Chí
Minh City Dance School (Trường múa Thành
Phố Hồ Chí Minh) was set up with its own separate Ballet
Department.
 During the past decade there has been
renewed interest in the art of ballet throughout the country, driven by an
increase in the number of creative collaborations with foreign choreographers
and inspired by several successful performance tours overseas. The belated
establishment of the Việt Nam Dancers’ Association (Hội
Nghệ sĩ Múa Việt Nam) in 1989 has also given an
important boost to the Vietnamese dance sector.
In Hà Nội work from the classical ballet repertoire is now presented on
a regular basis by the Việt Nam Opera Ballet Theatre, whilst in the
south a company known as the Hồ Chí Minh City Ballet and Symphony
Orchestra (HBSO) (Nhà hát Giao hưởng và Vũ
kịch Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh) has been operational
since 1994, giving regular performances of both international and Vietnamese
works. Where funds permit, Trần Văn Lai's Đoàn
Ballet Tháng mười (October Ballet Company) is also still
active in Hồ Chí Minh City.
Meanwhile Vietnamese choreographers have continued to create new dance works,
notably Nguyễn Công Nhạc's Huyền
thoại mẹ ('The Legend of Mother'), set to the music of
Nguyễn Văn Nam's Symphony No 5, Băng Thịnh's Huyền
tích Truờng Sơn ('Truờng Sơn Legend') set to
music by Ngô Quốc Tính, and Việt Cường's Lục
Vân Tiên - Kiều Nguyệt Nga and Ngọc
trai đỏ ('The Red Pearl'), both set to music by Ca Lê
Thuần.
 Over the past few years the Việt Nam
Opera Ballet Theatre has also provided a platform for the development of
Vietnamese contemporary dance. In 2000 collaborative programmes such as Dance
of the Monsoon, choreographed by Philippe Cohen of the National
Conservatory of Dance in Lyon, and Unravelling,
choreographed by Australian dance practitioner Cheryl Stock and a group of
young Vietnamese choreographers from the Việt Nam Dance School and
Việt Nam Opera Ballet Theatre, achieved exciting creative fusions of
traditional, classical and modern dance in a multicultural setting. In 2001
the Việt Nam Opera Ballet Theatre presented to critical acclaim a
landmark programme of four new works by young French-trained choreographers
Nguyễn Hồng Phong, Lê Vũ Long, Bùi Ngọc Quân and Hà
Thế Dũng.
Since that time in collaboration with the British Council (2002) Lê Vũ
Long has created the hearing-impaired contemporary dance company Together
Higher and participated in numerous other international
collaborative projects, including New York-based Dance Theatre Workshop's
Mekong Project. At the time of going to press VNOBT is planning to establish a
dedicated contemporary dance troupe with a view to facilitating the further
development of the genre.
Ballroom
Ballroom
 During the colonial period ballroom
dancing (khiêu vũ quốc tế) became
popular amongst the higher echelons of society but few ordinary Vietnamese
could afford to participate. In the latter days of French rule dance clubs
employed talented Chinese dancers from Shanghai as teachers and employed the
services of musical groups such as Myosotis to provide the musical
accompaniment to high-society balls.
Ballroom dancing ceased after independence but was revived during the 1970s,
largely it is said thanks to cultural exchange activities involving Cuba.
Since that time informal schools and clubs have been established all over
the country and amateur ballroom dancing has become a favourite national
pastime. Việt Nam now has many skilled ballroom dancers but ballroom
dancing does not yet feature on the curricula of the two dance schools,
neither is it promoted by the country's traditional dance and culture
associations. Most importantly, since there is still no official ballroom
dancing authority to enforce correct international technique, Việt Nam
has yet to take its rightful place in the international world of competitive
ballroom dancing. Despite this fact, in August 2003 Vietnamese dance
partners Chi Anh and Khánh Thi took second prize at the Amateur Latin
America Dance Competition in Paris.
Opera
Opera
 Western-style operatic singing has been
taught hand-in-hand with orchestral and chamber music since the inception
of the Việt Nam School of Music (now the Hà Nội Conservatory
of Music) in 1956. Accordingly, when the Việt Nam Opera-Ballet
Theatre (Nhà hát Nhạc vũ Kịch
Việt Nam) was set up in 1959, its opera company and orchestra
were the first to be operational. In the years which followed a production
of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin was staged with
Russian assistance, followed by the company's first home-grown piece, an
experimental quasi-operatic work entitled Núi rừng
hãy lên tiếng ('Let the Mountains and Forests Raise Their
Voices') set to words by Đỗ Nhuận and Trọng
Bằng, which was realised with the assistance of specialists from
North Korea.
In 1964, encouraged by the development of symphonic and choral music since
the establishment of the Việt Nam Symphony Orchestra and Việt
Nam Opera Ballet Theatre, the Ministry of Culture set up the Việt
Nam Orchestra, Choir and Ballet Theatre (Nhà hát Giao hưởng,
Hợp xướng, Nhạc Vũ kịch Việt Nam)
under Phạm Ngọc Lê to co-ordinate more effectively the
development and presentation of orchestral music, opera and ballet.
 In the following year this new
institution presented the first truly homegrown Vietnamese opera - Cô
Sao ('Miss Sao') by composer Đỗ Nhuận marked the
first successful attempt to integrate rural Vietnamese folk melodies into
the western operatic formula of solo and choral singing and recitatives
set to orchestral accompaniment. In addition to performances in Hà
Nội, this production toured to Nam Định, Hải Phòng
and Quảng Ninh.
As war with the United States escalated during the late 1960s the
Việt Nam Orchestra, Choir and Ballet Theatre was split into small
groups to take patriotic songs and musical performances to the front
lines. It also sent groups of symphony musicians and choristers to Thái Bình,
Nam Hà (now Nam Định and Hà Nam), Ninh Bình and Thanh Hóa
provinces to train non-specialist art and culture groups responsible for
the development of the Tiếng hát át tiếng
bom ('The Sound of Singing Drowns the Noise of Bombs') movement.
Despite the hardships of the period, two further homegrown operatic works
were composed and premiered in 1968 - Nhật Lai's Bên
bờ Krôngpa ('On the Banks of the Krongpa') and Lưu
Hữu Phước's Bông Sen ('Lotus').
These were followed in 1971 by Đỗ Nhuận's second
full-length opera entitled Người tạc tượng
('The Sculptor'). After Reunification two further Vietnamese operas were
written - Đỗ Nhuận's Nguyễn Trãi and
Nguyễn Đình Tấn's Tình yêu của
em ('My Love').
 The Việt Nam Opera-Ballet Theatre
regained its separate status in 1978. Since that time it has staged
numerous popular works from the international operatic repertoire in
collaboration with resident foreign cultural missions, but regrettably
lack of resources has severely limited opportunities for the presentation
of indigenous Vietnamese works. However, strenuous efforts are now being
made to stage the lost Vietnamese operatic masterpieces of the past 40
years. In this connection Đỗ Nhuận's Nguyễn
Trãi, which features a symphony orchestra, chorus and traditional
musical instruments such as the cồng, chiêng
(gong), đàn nguyệt (moon lute) and đàn
bầu (monochord), was given a rare performance in October 2000
as part of Hà Nội's 990th anniversary celebrations.
Việt Nam has produced numerous distinguished opera soloists.
Foremost amongst these are Trung Kiên (b 1939), Quý Dương (b
1937), Trần Hiếu (b 1937), Lê Dung (1951-2000), Quang
Thọ (b 1948) and Anh Đào (b 1942), all of whom have performed
widely on the international stage.
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