‘River goddess’ captivates audience with underwater Dragon Boat Festival dance in traditional costume
- He Haohao used to be part of a synchronised swimming team, before she started dancing underwater
- It took her 26 hours to shoot a two-minute clip for a Henan TV Dragon Boat Festival special, which has since gone viral
The dancer’s skirt appears to float as she slowly kicks her legs in the air; silk wrappings slowly rise and fall as if gravity has little effect. It’s not until the bubbles escape from her mouth that it becomes clear the dancer is underwater.
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Traditional underwater dance during Dragon Boat Festival stuns Chinese viewers
The story is about a woman named Luo, who was the daughter of Fu Xi, the creator of humanity. In the story, she drowned in a river and became a goddess.
The underwater dance won accolades across social media platforms, with the hashtag “River Goddess Fei Tian Dance” read over 390 million times as of Tuesday.
Many quoted the ancient poem “Goddess of Luo River” by Cao Zhi (192-232), a prince of the Three Kingdoms era (220-280) and son of the famous general Cao Cao.
One Weibo comment wrote that He was, “Flying gracefully like a swan and swimming agilely like a dragon”.
Another asked, “Did I just see a fairy with my very own eyes?”
