“Seeing Chinese Culture through Chinese Dance: The ‘Circle’”
Abstract
As a performative art that embodies human emotion and spiritual aspiration, dance has long been inextricably linked to the notion of yuan (“the circle”) within the Chinese cultural imaginary. Anchoring this study in the philosophical underpinnings of Chinese “circle” culture, the paper interrogates the concrete manifestations of the circle in Chinese dance. By means of a critical review of primary and secondary sources, it reconstructs the historical trajectory and spiritual semantics of yuan in traditional Chinese thought; simultaneously, through close choreographic analysis, it explicates how the circle is operationalized with respect to movement pathways, spatial configurations, and affective expression. The investigation reveals that yuan in Chinese dance is not confined to the kinetic vocabulary of ping-yuan (horizontal circle), li-yuan (vertical circle), and ba-zi-yuan (figure-eight circle); rather, it is systematically extended to macro-structural principles—such as concentric “large-circle-enclosing-small-circle” formations and cyclical stage designs—that externalize the cultural ethos of tian-ren-he-yi (the unity of Heaven and humanity) and yuan-man-he-xie (consummate harmony). The study thus articulates the unique mechanism by which the circle migrates from cultural symbol to corporeal lexis, offering a new perspective on the symbiotic relationship between art and culture.
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