Drum Dance

Drum Dance

Dance and drum dance is a kind of folk dance of Miao nationality in China. Miao people's "encouragement" has a long history. The written records of Miao people's drumming, singing and dancing in history can be seen earlier in the Tang Dynasty. Encouraging performances are rich and varied. According to the number of dancers, they can be divided into three categories: single person, double person and group encouragement. They can also be divided into four categories: monkey drum, dance drum, four-sided drum and reunion drum.

Inspiring Brief

Encouragement - is a Miao folk dance while beating drums. The drum is made of wood, covered with cow leather at both ends and struck on the shelf. Miao people's "encouragement" has a long history. The historical records of Miao people's drum beating and dancing can be seen earlier in Tang Dynasty Volume 14, "Wuxi Man, whose parents died, was buried outside the village for three years, played drum road songs, and relatives drank and danced for more than a month." Description. It shows that "inspiration" prevailed in the Miao folklore as early as the Tang Dynasty and has a history of thousands of years. Miao's "encouragement" mainly distributes in the western Hunan and southeastern Guizhou Qingshui River basins.

Encouragement Style

Due to long-term dispersed living, as well as differences in language, clothing and customs, the characteristics and forms of "inspiration" vary from place to place. In Fenghuang, Baojing and Huayuan counties in Western Hunan Province, there are "flower inspiration" (including "double inspiration" for men and women who developed on this basis later), Guzhang and other counties have "reunion inspiration", "year dance inspiration", and Baojing and Huayuan have "monkey inspiration". In the counties of Taijiang and Zhenyuan along Qingshui River in southeastern Guizhou Province, there are "stepping on drums". In the counties of Taijiang and Xiangxi in southeastern Guizhou Province, there are "wooden drums". In Shibing and Tongren counties, there are "tuning drums". These various forms of encouragement have different functions in different historical stages and play their own roles in social life. For example, the original "wooden drum" was only used for sacrificing ancestors, praying for gods and plagues, entertaining gods and ancestors, while the "tuning drum" was mainly used for funeral ceremonies to comfort the dead, "reunion drum", "stepping on drum" and "flower drum" and so on, mainly for entertainment in the annual Spring Festival and grand traditional festivals. Nowadays, it has evolved into an indispensable form of cultural entertainment besides festival activities and people's labor. Functional transformation also promotes more complex changes in the rhythm of inspiration and drum beating, which has the nature of performance.

origin

The origins of Miao inspiration vary. It is said that in ancient times, multi-headed monsters endangered Miao Township, destroyed women, devoured children, and did nothing evil. After seven days and seven nights of bloody fighting, Yaxiong, a brave descendant of the Miao nationality, led his companions to jump down the Tiankeng and finally killed the ferocious multi-headed monsters and rescued the beautiful woman Ah Zhu. The whole village celebrated the victory by supporting the old and bringing the young around the burning bonfire. Yaxiong and other warriors peeled off the skin of the monster, masked into a big drum and beat hard... It is said that this is the origin of Miaogu.

Legend has it that the Miao drum is made of the skin of the devil king. Whenever the Miao people celebrate a bumper harvest and hold a sacrificial ceremony, they will beat the big drum to frighten the devil and pray for happiness and well-being. There are two kinds of Miao inspiration: celebrating the New Year and celebrating the God. Celebrating the custom of the year is called "drum", and from four months to half a month before the beginning of the month, Xia Lizheng has nothing to do with each other after dinner. He has been invited to drum up the entertainment in the wide flat to enjoy the new year. But Nian Gu is a public game; Shen Gu is a sacrificial celebration. Whether it is celebrating the New Year or celebrating the God, its equipment is to use a big drum, slanting on the wooden frame, one person standing beside the drum, holding two sticks, striking the drum edge vigorously, commonly known as beating the drum edge, left hand hitting a jab, right hand hitting two jacks, that is, two-in-one hitting method, its voice "quack, beat, quack, beat, beat", as the method of beating, accompanied by the inspirer. Inspirators hold two short sticks in their hands, on the front side of the drum, with the rhythm of beating edge, change their hands, and apply fighting techniques, as the beating rhythm is fast, slow and fast, changing their hands, using techniques, The results of this study are as follows:1. Left-handed drumming, right-handed dancing, right-handed drumming, left-handed dancing, fast or slow, if decisive, front and back rotation, quick and slow, interesting to hear, good to see, so named inspiration.

The gender of drumming is divided into male drums and female drums. Men's drums have chicken cock wings, drums urged soldiers, ploughing fields, farmers transplanting seedlings, harvesting and threshing, ROC wings, monkey operas, Kowloon into the sea... Women drum has beautiful dressing, Baotou wash, skillful woman brocade, embroidery and stitching, hemp spinning, left and right flower arrangement... There are many kinds of inspiration from the Miao family.

According to the different forms and contents of its performance, it can be divided into flower inspiration, monkey inspiration, reunion inspiration, single inspiration, double inspiration, four inspiration, year dance inspiration and so on. Encouraging actions mostly come from daily production and life, and there are also some simulations of martial arts and animal movements.