In which I attend a modern dance performance

Tonight I went to "Duruu" or "Stirrup", a modern Mongolian ballet. The story goes that during the time of the Xiongnu (Hunnu), some Mongolian men were out hunting and trampled the eggs of the cranes. The cranes, lamenting the loss of their young, decide to curse the Mongolian warriors. After saying their goodbyes to their mothers and wives, they ride off to battle. But here the curse of the cranes is fulfilled: their iron stirrups break and they all fall to their deaths.
The moral is that when we fail to preserve and protect nature, in the end we all suffer. Or as the program puts it, "If nature sets revenge it returns bitterness"

I unfortunately got a bunch of blurry pictures, but believe me when I say the movements were fascinating and the costumes and music beautiful. Though a purely contemporary piece composed for this year's competition, it had a lot of elements calling to Mongolian traditional art performance. For example, the 'mother' dancer (who I later found out was also the choreographer) began her piece using traditional folk dance (or Bilgee) hand motions. The poor trampled crane eggs were represented by three extremely talented contortionists, another art form traditional to Mongolia.

It was fascinating to see cultural heritage become contemporary, both through modern dance movements and through the message about the dangers of environmental degradation (a growing problem in Mongolia due to desertification, global climate change, and mining). A great night!

The entry posters for Duruu

Inside the Opera and Ballet theatre

Lamenting the broken crane egg(s)

Cursing the stirrups

The warriors heading off on their journey, about to meet a tragic end