Flower Drum Lantern (Hua Gu Deng) is a folk art form that blends dance, songs, drama, and percussive music. It is popular in the area of the Huai River, which is generally regarded as a geographical dividing line between North and South China. Traditionally, Flower Drum Lantern is performed at temple fairs, usually after the autumn harvest. In recent years, it has also been adopted by urban people who gather to dance in communities squares or parks as a daily exercise.
Yue Ying 岳颖 was born in Fengtai, Anhui Province, which is a center of the art of Flower Drum Lantern. Yue started training in Flower Drum Lantern at age nine, and then went on to study choreography at the Beijing Dance Academy, which enabled him to add contemporary choreographic ideas to the traditional art form. Yue has performed in a number of countries, and appeared at the 2013 Chinese American Festival featuring Anhui Province on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Guo Yujie 郭玉洁studied at the Fengtai Flower Drum Lantern Art School before she became a professional dancer with the Jiangsu Provincial Song and Dance Theater. She has performed at such occasions as the opening and closing ceremonies of the Second Asian Youth Games in Nanjing in 2013.
