Dedicated Dance Exhibition: Strengthening the nomad's cultural identity through dance

The western Mongolian traditional folk dance "Bii Biyelgee" is expression of the traditional knowledge, practice and living style of nomadic Mongols. Today the folk dance Bii Biyelgee is performed by very few practitioners or intangible cultural heritage bearers (as described by UNESCO term) from Western Mongolian ethnic groups including Bayad, Durvud, Khoton, Zahchin, Myangad and Uriankhai. Although, the Bii Bieylgee folk dance registered on the UNESCO List for Urgent Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009, it is still being under the risk of disappearance. Here following link you can see the information related to Bii Biyelgee in UNESCO website.  http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/USL/mongol-biyelgee-mongolian-traditional-folk-dance-00311                                                                            Practitioner is performing "Khoton Bii"   ‘Biyelgee’ is unique dancing/performing arts which are associated with wide range of

This idea, to bring the live performance of the traditional folk dance “Bii biyelgee” in the space of National Museum of Mongolia, was inspired by the lecture and workshops given by the following modules; Dance as Knowledge (at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway); the Critical Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage (at University of Blaise Pascal in France), and Performance of Heritage: Dance in Museums, Galleries and Historic Sites (at University of Roehampton in London) in the frame of International Master Programme Choreomundus, and then obviously the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Dance has never been a part of museum’s permanent and temporary exhibitions before in Mongolia.  It can be explained with three reasons, in the first Mongolian museums do not have collections including videos, photos, costumes, drawings and sculptures related to specific genre of dance and dancers; in the second, there was no nee

Having considered the range of the activity, the number of tangible objects, especially the ethnographic objects, museum facilities, location and social responsibility for the public, particularly to the younger generations, I have decided to implement this portfolio project at the National Museum of Mongolia for a five months or 2 semesters of the school year. Indeed, the contract [1]  signed between the National Museum of Mongolia and 50 high schools out of 120 in Ulaanbaatar city by the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Science of Mongolia, brought me good opportunity to select the targeted audiences or visitor for this project. According to the contract, the museum will give free service for only students who are studying in their 10 th  grade of high school. Therefore, this time the targeted group will be limited by students who are studying in the 10th grade of high school.  After implementation of the project, I will do review on the project and try

The portfolio project packaged with 3 different parts and will intertwine the intangibility and tangibility into live performance. The project will reconstruct the nomad’s living style through some documentary films, photos, ethnographic objects and live performance in museum space for dedicated audiences or high school students.  In the first part, students will see the permanent ethnographic exhibitions at the main exhibition hall of the National Museum of Mongolia. Based on the ethnographic objects of the museum, they will be given knowledge and understanding on the nomadic living style of different ethnic groups in Mongolia. They will find the answer to questions, why nomads live in ger, why they move four seasons of the year, why they herd livestock, how they created this "unique" nomadic culture in the long period of the history and so on. Nomad's dwelling Ger Nomad's living style  For instance; from the permanent exhibition (below pictu

Following results and achievements are expected in three fields. In the museum, galleries and especially for curators: Museums will be provided with experiment how to exhibit the performance parallel with tangible object’s permanent exhibition Curators will be provided with knowledge and experience on the importance of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding and promotion besides with tangible objects Further creative thinking to exhibit performance parallel to permanent exhibition will come Museums and galleries will develop their facilities to exhibit the dance performance For target group or students of high school: Students will have the ability to distinguish the traditional way of performing Bii Biyelgee from the staged version of Bii Biyelgee dance Students will have knowledge how movements of Bii Biyelgee derived from tangible objects, which are used in everyday living style of nomadic Mongolians Students will be provided with knowledge to distinguish the e