“Damas” show their initial formation before breaking into square dance in a local park in Beijing. (Photo : Channel 4 News/ YouTube)
Where does dance fall under, culture or sports?
The Ministry of Culture and the General Administration of Sports (GAS) joined hands once more to promote square dancing, but with the reminder of adherence to regulations imposed.
Local authorities shall monitor the noise level and provide suitable venues for square dancing, according to the Global Times.
Square dancing (“Guang Chang Wu” or roughly translates to “Public Square Dance”) is extremely popular in the country among citizens who are usually aged 45 and above and mostly female.
The “damas” (literally translates to “big mamas”) do their dance routines in squares and plazas and other similar public venues. BBC News calls them “dancing grannies.”
Channel 4 News said in 2014 that there were a hundred million “damas.”
When interviewed in March, Liu Guoyong, chief of the mass fitness department of GAS, told China Daily that despite of the dance echoing the “collective aspect of Chinese culture,” the authorities need “to guide it with national standards and regulations” because problems arise concerning venues and the amount of noise produced.
When the venue is near residential areas, people living in the community would naturally complain of the loud music playing.
How loud could it get?
“Loud enough to blow out an eardrum,” wrote BBC News.
Two persons who couldn’t tolerate the noise retaliated in a seemingly disgraceful manner.
Xiong told New China TV that while square-dancing in the immediate grounds of an apartment building in Wuhan in Hebei Province with her group one night in 2013, someone from the building threw feces on them.
South China Morning Post reported that in 2013, a man took his hunting rifle and fired into the air, probably to scare away some dancers. Not satisfied perhaps with the result, he decided to release his large dog, a Tibetan mastiff, in his last effort to stop the dancing.
The culprit behind the hurling of solid body waste never got caught; however, the man who fired a shot got detained.
Beginning April until July, a dozen dance routines recommended by the Ministry of Culture and GAS were introduced in different fitness centers located in 31 municipalities and provinces, reported China Daily.
Exclusively for square dancing, the dance routines or drills were choreographed by expert fitness trainers and professional dancers.
If that is the case, then the dancing continues.
