Sofia concentrates the majority of Bulgaria's leading performing arts troupes.

The number of arts troupes began to fall; according to Mr. Wang, of the Ministry of Culture, there were 4,000 performing-arts companies under the ministry's supervision in 1978 as against 2,640 today.

At the end of 1987, Xu Wei joined the People's Liberation Army, working in the arts troupe of Shaanxi military region.

In the 1940s she joined the performing arts troupe of the People's Liberation Army.

Small galleries or arts troupes can get neighborhood funds from local businesses, but a large institution like the American Museum of the Moving Image gets almost none of its private funds from Queens, Ms. Slovin said.

The Downtown Cultural District, as the renovated area will be known, is intended to provide a focus for the city's sprawling network of performing arts troupes and growing-room for the crowded financial district.

Instead, he joined the performing arts troupe of Uday Shankar, the older brother of the better-known Ravi Shankar.

China's opera companies, like all its performing arts troupes, are relics of the Maoist system in which art was completely subservient to politics but artists were completely supported by governments.

Members of the Communist Party's top political consultative body have also expressed concern because China's state-funded arts troupes have been unable to compete with Shen Yun's popularity internationally.

In addition to burial societies and drinking and dining clubs, inscriptions and other documents attest to the regulated existence of numerous professional and trade guilds, performing arts troupes, veterans' groups, and religious sodalities (sodalitates).