Chinese Folk Dance by Cindy Seto

Folk dance has a long history in traditional Chinese culture and it has taken diverse forms over millennia.

Dance has always been closely connected with the common people, reflecting their ideas, their labour, and their daily lives. Dancing female figures are the main subject of my artwork. My intention is to reflect on connections between ancient Chinese dance traditions and contemporary forms of dance. My work is inspired by memories from my childhood and photographs in which I performed Chinese dance with a group of dancers in front of an audience. I use digital photography to document dancers during Chinese New Year festivals, and these images represent modern forms of dance. The photos seek to capture the flexibility and strength of the human body, while at the same time commenting on what human beings are capable of, not just in dance and the arts, but more profoundly.

About the Contributor

Hello everyone, my name is Cindy Seto and I am from Toronto Ontario, I graduated from the University of British Columbia in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Visual Arts. My focus is on research and photography in everyday life, to capture the small moments.  I am Chinese Canadian and I have a younger sister who lives in Toronto. She works in IT security for Aviva Insurance Company of Canada. This is the first time submitting my work to this magazine and I am beginning to try other things by publishing my artwork into different magazines, newspapers, books, catalogs, and projects. It’s extremely important to express yourself to the public, you live and learn and you share. Information is an asset to the human brain. The video was compiled by Nancy Jiayi Lu who is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology in the Faculty of Science at UBC Okanagan. The audio-visual recording features students at UBC Okanagan and Ana Feng, a representative of the Mood Psychology Club.

Photo provided by Cindy Seto