Music and Dance
The Bhutan program at the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will present all aspects of traditional and contemporary Bhutanese music and dance, thereby offering an opportunity to experience sights and sounds rarely seen or heard outside of the remote Himalayan Kingdom. Both secular and religious music and dance will be performed.
Highlights will include the dramatic masked dances that comprise a major part of traditional Bhutanese religious festivals—with opportunities offered for visitors to meet and interact with the dancers and to learn about the complex choreography and symbolism presented by the dances. Some of the traditional dances date from the 16th century, and will be performed for the very first time in America on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The spectacular costumes and masks worn by the dancers will be complemented by rhythmic music all performed on traditional instruments.
The diversity of Bhutanese secular music also will be performed, providing opportunities to celebrate occasions of daily life in Bhutan such as rice-planting, plowing and harvesting, house-building, weaving, carpentry, and animal tending. Virtually always communal, visitors will be invited to join the Bhutanese dancers and thereby share their celebrations of daily life through these simple but challenging songs and graceful dance movements.
