Dechung (right), co-founder of the We Did Dance studio, leads children in practicing street dance on June 5 in Lhasa, the capital of the Xizang autonomous region. PALDEN NYIMA/CHINA DAILY

At an international street dance competition in Beijing on Sunday, four young dancers from the Xizang autonomous region wowed the audience with a routine that blended hip-hop with traditional Tibetan dance forms.

Their feet moved in sync with hip-hop beats, while the choreography incorporated movements from the relpa and gorshey traditional Tibetan dances, and the relpa drum provided the perfect rhythmic accompaniment.

The blend of styles drew gasps and applause from the audience.

"I've never seen this kind of performance," said a young dancer from Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, who goes by the alias Mengbao. "Their routine is very distinctive and beautiful, as they incorporate their Tibetan dance and instruments with hip-hop."

Marianna, a solo dancer from Russia, called the performance "really cool".

"They interpret the music very cleanly," she said. "They combine technical skills with local cultural characteristics."

The four youngsters, all from the We Did Dance studio in Lhasa, the capital of Xizang, shared the stage with 15 other teams selected from across China as well as solo dancers from home and abroad.

For the four, it was their first appearance at such a high-level competition outside Xizang.

Among the performers was 10-year-old Tenzin Kunzang, who played the relpa drum during the routine.

She has been learning street dance for three years. According to her mother, the introverted girl initially took up dancing to become more confident and express herself through movement, and went on to fall in love with the rhythm and energy of hip-hop.

Coming to Beijing presented an opportunity to learn from the best dancers and demonstrate how Tibetan culture can blend with street dance.

"I'm really happy to be here in Beijing, exchanging dance skills with kids from all over the country. It broadened my horizons," Tenzin said. "I can learn a lot from the foreign dancers' body control and overall frame."

Explaining how they used moves from the relpa dance and gorshey circle dance forms, Tenzin said that she hoped people would see this as something fresh and novel from Xizang, and that it would become part of the wider street dance scene in China.

Behind the children's performance is their teacher, Dechung, a Tibetan born in the 1990s who first encountered street dance while studying in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province.

After returning to Lhasa, Dechung co-founded We Did Dance in 2021, hoping to give local children the opportunity to learn, compete and grow without leaving the Tibetan Plateau.

The teaching is adapted to local needs. Lyrics and dance terminology in English or Chinese are translated into Tibetan to help students quickly grasp the concepts, and instructors guide them through the choreography step by step.

However, the studio is not just about teaching a global dance form.

"We also integrate Tibetan music into the beats and ethnic elements into the props," said Dechung.

The fusion resonates with a growing number of young people in Xizang. In May, the Golden Junior international youth street dance competition held its first-ever Lhasa event, drawing contestants from across the region.

According to China Xizang Online, Ruan Cheng, a judge at the event and founder of the Golden Junior brand, said that Tibetan youngsters possess a natural affinity for dance. When they dance to music, people can feel something uniquely Tibetan coming through, he said.

Dechung said he believes that "in five or 10 years, the street dance culture in Xizang will become even stronger".

"We still have a lot to learn," he added. "But it's an opportunity for us to build our own style and show a different way to present hip-hop."

Wang Songsong contributed to this story.