Just like drama, Quyi also pays much
attention to the maneuver of "Hand, Eyes, Body and Step in performance. Hand,
Eyes, Body and Step here refer to a performer's expressions and movements that
accompany his singing and reciting in the performance.
Hand refers to gestures the performer uses
to present story plots. Gestures can indicate distance, height and directions,
assimilate quantity and shape of an object, and describe physique, character and
emotions of dramatis personae in the story together with the performer's singing
and reciting. Gestures should have clear-cut objectives and be spiffy.
"Eyes" refers to eye expressions of the
performer and it is the most important instrument in Quyi performance
because it can show pleasure, anger, sorrow and joy, frame of mind and changing
emotions of different dramatis personae. A Quyi performer conveys the
meaning and artistic conception he figures out from playbooks to the audience
through eye expressions, facial expressions and looks during singing and
storytelling. Eye expression can also be used to reflect environment, scenes and
ambience in the stories and has the function to impress the audience. The
Quyi performer usually looks around the audience before he steps onto the
stage and uses his eye expressions to show his respect for the audience and
self-confidence in arts so as to draw the audience closer to him and to the
performance.
"Body" refers to the way dramatis personae
present themselves during the Quyi performance. In the performance,
performers usually play the roles of dramatis personae during Shuochang
(singing and storytelling) while, in a traditional opera, dramatis personae
have certain performers to play their roles.
"Step" refers to body movement of
performers. The performer adds to the atmosphere and plays the roles of the
dramatis personae more vividly through movement of his body and
steps.
Quyi has many
different genres, each with different schools, so the handling of "Hand, Eyes,
Body and Step" varies a lot. The differences usually exist in accordance with
differences of art genres, schools and items. The basic element of Quyi
arts is language, and its major performing method is singing and reciting so
physical performance does not have very strict requirements. That is to say, the
performer is only required to accurately and moderately imitate expressions and
postures of dramatis personae but should not add too much complicated
expressions and disorderly, unsystematic movements.