MURFREESBORO — A
multicolored, serpentine dragon will wind its way around Murfreesboro’s public
square in advance of the official start of the Chinese “Year of the Dog.”
With help from the University of Memphis Confucius Institute
Dragon Dance Group, the creature will whirl around the county courthouse at 6
p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, in conjunction with the Murfreesboro Art Crawl.
The dance is part of the inaugural Murfreesboro Festival of
Chinese Arts, which is sponsored by MTSU’s Center for Chinese Music and Culture
and MTSU’s own Confucius Institute. Mei Han, the center’s director, said the
dragon dance is an old Chinese tradition.
“The dragon is said to have the ability to control the
weather,” Han said. As China was traditionally an agricultural society, during
the celebration of Chinese lunar new year, people put on a dragon dance to pray
for good luck and a perfect year for their crops.”
In fact, “Dragons Soar and Tigers Leap” will be the first
piece to be performed at a concert by award-winning faculty and students of the
Zhejiang Conservatory of Music at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, in Hinton Hall in
MTSU’s Wright Music Building.
All Festival of Chinese Arts events are free and open to the
public. A complete listing of events, including calligraphy workshops, concerts
and art displays, is available at http://www.mtsu.edu/chinesemusic/events.php.
For more information, contact Han at 615-898-5718 or ccmc@mtsu.edu.
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