the army held its first art festival， in which came outwith a lot of new dances including "Marine Soldiers Dance"， "Tibetan Cavalry Dance"and others which had won prizes. Its successful establishment had a lasting， significantand real impact on the dance creation of the Army. In April 1953， the first national folkmusic and dance festival was held in Beijing. 331 folk artists of all nationalities and regions in China participated the festival， presenting 27 performances， and more than 100good music and dance programs with local characteristics such as "Riding a DonkeyDance"， " Tea-picking Dance'， " Lion Dance'， " Flower Lantern Dance"， " DrumDance"， "Joyous Farmer's Dance，" "Tiao Xian" and so on. The dance the forum was also held during the festival， stressing the study of folk dance. In February 1955， the National Amateur Music and Dance Festival was held in Beijing. The Ministry of Culture， theNational Federation of Trade Unions， the Central Committee of the Communist YouthLeague， Ministry of Higher Education， and the Ministry of Education organized the festival. The festival was divided into three sections performed by farmers， students and civilworkers receptively 201 （ some said 293 ） programs were performed by the actors and actresses from 8 nationalities of Han， Hui， Mongolian， Korean， Li and Dong， Zhuang，Man. A total of 800 people including 356 farmers， folk artists and professional artists，224 students and 223 workers participated in the performance. Anhui's folk dance "LiuHai Plays with Jin Chan"， Heilongjiang's " Little Cart Dance"， Zhejiang's "DragonDance"， Shanxi "Su Drum Dance"， Jilin's "Northeast China Folk Dance"， NorthernGuangxi's "Wangsan Hunts Birds" and "Carrying-pole Dance" and other works werewelcomed with great acclaim.
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