Chinese folk dances reflect the world around the people who created them, evoking creatures in a rainforest, an umbrella unfolding like a mushroom or villagers playfully splashing water, for example.

Credit: Sreang Hok/Cornell University

“That’s something really beautiful about folk dance,” said Cuky Zhu ’27, a member of Amber, a Cornell group that performs traditional Chinese dances as well as member-choreographed pieces that weave in elements of other styles. “You get to know the culture, the daily activity of the people you are trying to represent.”

Zhu and other members of Amber and its sister group, Illuminations, will perform Chinese dance, blended with other ethnic, classical and contemporary styles, at their Rhythms of China showcase on March 13 at 7 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

“We sold almost 800 tickets last year, which was a record for us, and we’re expecting this year’s show to be even bigger since our membership has doubled in size,” said Melinda Lin ’27, Illuminations’ publicity chair and a statistics major in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S).

The groups, which were both founded more than 20 years ago, are co-ed and open to dancers at any skill level. Illuminations dancers are all undergraduates or graduate students, while Amber dancers include graduate students, faculty and staff members as well as undergraduates.

Credit: Sreang Hok/Cornell University

At the showcase, dancers will perform pre-choreographed traditional pieces and student-choreographed dances, and they will lead a children’s dance featuring young dancers from around Ithaca. 

“It’s a really great immersive experience within Ithaca to China,” said Wendy Wu ’29, an Illuminations member and a biological sciences major (A&S). 

The dances are full of precise, intricate movements. Even breath and finger placements are carefully choreographed. The dancers meet weekly for a couple hours per dance to learn each piece. It can take them days to learn how to flip and catch a fan flawlessly or to master a series of elegant hand positions. 

“There are so many little hard dances within the dance, but you figure it out as the time goes on,” Wu said, “and then you just bond over those moments.”

The groups feel like family, Lin said. The dancers typically cap off rehearsals by going to dinner together. 

“Even as our club has expanded, we’ve made an effort for everyone to get to know each other,” she said. “It’s a great place to connect with other people of different backgrounds from different schools.”

Credit: Sreang Hok/Cornell University

Shannon Gu ’27, an Amber member who is studying chemistry and statistics (A&S), moved to the U.S. from China when she was in high school. Not only does she appreciate the connection to her culture, she enjoys the self-expression she finds in dance.

“I’m in four dances that are vastly different this year,” she said, “and every single piece showcases a different part of me that I think my classmates and my professors would not normally see as a student in their class, or as somebody working in a lab, or as a partner who’s collaborating in a group project.”

After the showcase, the dancers will immediately start working on next year’s dance pieces. Zhu, who is studying human biology, health and society in the College of Human Ecology, plans to learn new dances during her summer break at home in China and will bring back to Cornell to share. 

“We all definitely work hard in academics,” Zhu said, “but outside of that, we definitely want to have some leisure activities and some connections that go beyond professional development and that make our life more diverse. That shared happiness and community makes you feel like you belong.”