A group of Vietnamese contemporary dance artists who are mostly active overseas have returned to their home country to organize a workshop, giving local dance enthusiasts a meaningful summer with a great lessons and inspiration.

The group, "1648kilomet," called their summer workshop in Hanoi a success as the event was more than welcomed by students.

The five-member team was founded by choreographer, dance actor Vu Ngoc Khai and producer Van Quy Ngoc Ai, with 1,648km being the distance from the north to the south of Vietnam as the crow flies.

The members are choreographers and dancers working in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany, who are currently active in performing arts for nonprofit and volunteer and community projects.

Their workshop, titled “Made in Vietnam”, was held in collaboration with the Military University of Culture and Arts in the Vietnamese capital on July 28 and 29, sharing knowledge and updating dance trends in Europe to colleagues and the audience in Vietnam.

The “Made in Vietnam” event was fully booked only three days after registration was opened.

Thirty-six official students and 25 observers spent two afternoons under the training of the five teachers from 1648kilomet, with the lessons prepared from basics steps to more difficult levels.

The first session began with learning to master breathing, movements in the cognition of the relationship between space and time, and the technique of gripping the floor.

Then, choreographer Hoang Ngoc Tu instructed the students about the technique of breakdown of the body parts. And choreographer Bui Ngoc Quan provided improvisation class in terms of space, time and body interaction with the rhythm.

The knowledge of movements performed on the floor, or floorwork, was introduced by two choreographers Vu Ngoc Khai and Pham Tri Thanh.

Choreographer Tran Tien Huy later joined the dual to end the workshop with another improvisation session, in which the coordinators made the students get into the music in a totally improvised way.

Even so, the result was amazing - all of the students greatly interacted with each other to create a true contemporary dance, as if it had been well choreographed with clear ideas.

Fourteen-year-old Nguyen Duc Huy and fifteen-year-old Nguyen Viet Bach, two students of Vietnam Dance College participating in the workshop, said that they felt very excited and grateful to be able to learn from the teachers of “Made in Vietnam.”

As the group’s name suggests, the artists behind “Made in Vietnam” want to continue to show the young people, who love to dance, “the essence of Vietnamese dance forged and flourished in the world's great seas” with a promise of a comeback in the next summer.