At the 9th China Lotus Awards, on Nov 14, the Art Theater from the city of Liuzhou, in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, got a gold award in the ethnic and folk dance contest for its Mulam dance, and the only Best Music prize, for its depiction of typical maternal love among the Mulam ethnic group and their traditional charm.

This ethnic and folk dance competition, in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province, is part of the National Dance Awards. It started on Nov 11 and had 280 performances, with only 52 making it to the finals, on Nov 14. It was the first time for the Liuzhou dance to be performed at the contest and its victory was an unprecedented one for the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The Art Theater group previously took silver for creativity at the 10th National Dance Competition and 1st place in both performance and creation at the 7th Guangxi Music and Dance Contest.

Edited by Lin Hong and Roger Bradshaw