Joyful dance series, aka Buddhist dancers at Dunhuang, by Zhiwei Tu

September 25, 2023

Joyful dance series, aka Buddhist dancers at Dunhuang, by Zhiwei Tu

I believe these were generally based on Tang Dynasty images from the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. All the ones I saw were labeled as paintings by Zhiwei Tu. Many of them are doing Sogdian style musical/dance performances, which became popular in China during the Tang era:

"The Sogdian Whirl and other similar, imported dances were popular in China during the Tang dynasty, especially in Chang'an and Luoyang.

The Sogdian merchant-dancers, who performed different dances but were especially renowned for this dance, were very famed in China. In the Sogdian Whirl, a young woman was spinning inside a circle. The Sogdian Whirl became popular in China. It was performed both in the Chinese court and in China itself. Sources from the Tang dynasty such as the Old Book of Tang attest to it being performed at court. The dance was performed at court by, among others, the Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei.

The Sogdian Whirl was depicted in the funerary art of Sogdians in China. Further, it was depicted on many native Chinese tombs, which further shows its popularity in China."

-taken from Wikipedia