Dance in China

The ancient Chinese dance is mostly of images, figures and texts that have been discovered in archaeological finds, reconstructed today (as of 2005). Most often it is danced with long sleeves. It also contains elements of ballet. Since this is a reconstructed dance, he has no claim to authenticity, which its beauty but not harm in the least.

China, with an area of 9,572,419 km ² is one of the largest countries in the world. Just as great is its cultural diversity. The billions of people is to be divided into 56 ethnic groups, each having their own dance culture. In this article some of the most famous dances are explained below:

Dances of the Han ( Yangge )

Among the Han belongs in China, the majority of the population. The dances of the Han are very lively, and the facial expression or the expression play an important role. Most famous are the " Yangge ". It is a peasant dance which is danced vary by region. This dance form was originally danced on Thanksgiving, and even today you can see them on the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival. It is sometimes even danced with a fan and handkerchief, and on stilts. Accompanied the dancers, among others, of drums. Basically " Yangge " groups are danced that contain clearly defined characters, which is almost a " dance theater " turns the Dance: usually one or more young girls ( nu ), a clown ( chou ), young men ( Gongzi ) and an old woman ( laokuai ). In this dance many elements of traditional Chinese opera were integrated. The acrobatics find their place here and is usually shown by the clown. However, the characters vary by region. The roles described here are from the Yangge of Hebei Province and serve only as an example.

Tibetan dance

Characteristic for the Tibetan dance are the bobbing movements and slightly bent forward torso. The dance is danced with boots, the women wear skirts. In addition, Tibetans are always richly decorated with precious stones and silver. Especially turquoise and amber stones are popular. The special thing about Tibetan dance are the long sleeves. When you swing the arms, these are particularly evident. Often the dances are danced in a circle in mixed groups.

Uighur dance

The Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang province in northwest China. A minority living outside of China in neighboring countries such as Uzbekistan. The dances of the Uighurs are similar by the Central Asian dances. This great value is placed on beautiful arms and hands. The facial expression is very sophisticated: even with the eyebrows dance. The head and shoulder movements occupy an important place. The steps are usually small and sometimes very quickly, many twists and deep back bends also occur. The dancers usually wear a vest over a dress, under which she always wear pants ( the Uighurs are Muslims ). The dancers wear the hair in small, long braids, and is danced in golden high heel shoes. Sometimes the dancer balances during the dance also several cups on her head, or she dances with two small plates in their hands, on which they mitschlägt the clock.

Mongolian dance

In Mongolian dance sometimes cups are balanced on the head. Characteristic are the shoulder and arm movements. The dancers frequently imitate riding ( with the feet they imitate the gallop, with his hands holding the reins ). This is due to the nomadic life of this people. The arm movements are reminiscent of the wings of a hawk or eagle. The women wear while dancing very wide skirts, the men relatively tight pants. Both are wearing boots.

Dance of the Thai minority

The Thai minority lives in southwest China. Her most famous dance imitates the elegant, proud movements of the peacock, which is the " totem " of this minority. At the dance imitates with the fingers of the head of the peacock. Other movements ( flying, water drinking and subsequent spring shaking) is represented with the poor. The dancers wear tight Wickeljupes and short tops which leave the stomach free. But even within the ethnic group there is, as far as the clothes, big differences. In dancing, but the above clothing is usually worn, except for the peacock dance, for a long dress is worn, decorated with peacock feathers.

Other dances

The dances of other ethnic groups are less well known outside of China. Is common to all dances are probably the most colorful costumes. Otherwise, there are very large differences between the individual dances. However, researchers seem to agree that a lot of rituals dances originate, ie religious origin, or serve (or served ) to educate the children and young people. Therefore, in the dances often gestures of everyday life are imitated.