Tibetans are good at singing and dancing. Nearly every Tibetan can sing and dance. People who can talk can sing, and where there is crowd, there is dance. They sing anytime for any event and dance at festivals, weddings, and gatherings as well as in their spare time.

Tibetan dance and song are inseparable twins. If Tibetans sing, they are sure to dance, and they dance while singing.

There are many branches of Tibet dance, which can be roughly divided into four styles: Xie (dance with singing); Zhuo (dance without singing); Ge Er (dance with playing instruments); and Qamo (religious dance).

Based on historical writings, more than a thousand years ago, folk religious and sorcerers' dances were very popular in Tibet, which greatly influenced Tibetan song and dances that have been handed down to this day.

The areas inhabited by Tibetans boasts a great diversity of folk songs and dances, with only some common dances presented as examples: Xie (Guoxie, Guozhuang, Duixie, and Xie dances); Zhuo (Zhuoxie and Rebazhuo dances); and Qamo.

Guoxie Dance Guoxie is a group dance popular in the rural areas of Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The participants dance hand in hand and sing in rotating circles. The dance is often seen in villages, on open squares, and on threshing grounds. At festivals, people dance and sing from sunset to sunrise, marking the rhythm by stamping their feet. Guoxie is performed to a 2/4 beat with the stress on the first beat. The steps are steady and vigorous, characterized by a marked tempo and a strong sense of people's labor and life. The underlying characteristic of the dance is the expression of collective enthusiasm and joy. This dance is found everywhere in Tibet, but the most renowned version is found in the Shannan area. The form is largely as follows: At festivals men and women stand hand in hand in two lines around a big vat of highland-barley wine placed on open ground. The two groups first sing and walk from left to right in a circle. When they finish singing, the Xieben (the dance's organizer) leads in shouting, "Xiu, xiu, xiu," and starts the dance with rhythmic steps. This rhythmic shouting is called Xiege (beginning of the song) in Tibetan, which is followed closely by quick-tempo singing and dancing. The two lines of men and women compete in their dancing. After repeated dancing the Xieben leads in shouting, "Xiu, xiu, xiu," or sings alone while the others dance to his tempo. This part of the dance is called the Xiexiu, or finale. Xiege thus is both the beginning of the song and the initial dance steps to shouts of "Xiu, xiu, xiu," or "Qu, qu, qu." The dancers' shouts are very similar to "One, two, three -- everybody dance!" As many people participate in Guoxie and it usually does not have any instrumental accompaniment, it is hard to attain uniform dance movements. Xiege is designed to arouse people's enthusiasm and get them moving together. The Xiexiu is usually the climax of the dance, while Xiege sparks the participants' enthusiasm in their concluding climatic dance steps. ¡¡ Guozhuang Dance Guozhuang in Tibetan is homophonic with Guozhuo, which means singing and dancing in a circle. It originated from the form by which Tibetans danced around a campfire, all the time. This dance has been with the Tibetan ethnic group throughout their history. Guozhuang consists of singing, and quick singing and dancing. The tempo is subdivided into slow, medium, and quick. At the beginning of a performance, men and women stand in two separate circles and sing in rotation while swaying and stamping their feet. They conclude their singing by shouting "Ya!" Then their steps quicken and come to a stop at an exuberant allegro. The allegro music is often a condensed version of the slow music. There are four kinds of Guozhuang: Temple Guozhuang, Pastoral Guozhuang, Farm Guozhuang, and Forest Guozhuang. The Temple Guozhuang event is organized for religious purposes in temples or monasteries, or for greeting and sending-off the Living Buddha. It is solemn with strong religious implications, through which believers dance in honor of the Living Buddha, grateful for their expected bliss in their afterlife. The other three kinds are enthusiastic, unrestrained, and somewhat complacent. They are organized for festivals and big occasions. The movements of guozhuang are agile and vigorous. The loose, wide trousers of the male dancers look like the feathered legs of eagles, and the men's movements are imitative of creatures, especially eagles, such as an eagle spreading its wings, hopping, and soaring. Women expose their right arms during dancing, with the right sleeve waggling behind. Moving around a circle, they sway their joined hands frontward and backward, keeping beats of their steps, until very late at night. The emphasis is on the postures and expression of emotion. The verses for one song read: "Oh snow-capped mountains, make way for us. We fly with wings spread. Oh rivers, make way for us. We stride with broad steps." These old verses display Tibetans' brave and bold character