Belief Dances
Qinghai Volume: Yutu (Tiger
Dance) of the Tu Ethnic Group
Yutu is the another of tiger and this dance is a folk dance
dispelling the evils and praying the god for peace, and popular among the Tu
ethnic group of Tongren
County in Qinghai
Province. On the twentieth day of the eleventh lunar month of each year and
after a special sacrifice ritual, seven chosen men dressed up as tigers, on
hearing the gunfire, rush down the mountain in panic and fmally into the village
going through the streets and even the houses for the purpose of "sucking the
evil spirit" away from all the houses and the patients. The sharp contrast is
that the dance is quite solemn at the ritual of the Eriang (a Chinese god)
Temple while unstrained and barbaric when the dancers entering the village,
mischievous and funny when jumping over the walls and taking away the food with
their mouths; unrestrained and bold once again when dancing in village.
Yutu is a sacrifice dance with a specific style of the Tu ethnic group. Some
experts hold that this cultural phenomenon is quite special and influenced by
the tiger worshipping tradition of the ancient Qiang ethnic group.
Anhui Volume: Nuo (the God Driving Away
the Plague) Dance (Child Dance with Umbrella)
Nuo Dance has a long history and is well known as a "living fossil of the
dance". Coming from the ancient Chinese belief, it is a superstitious dance of
driving away plague and devils in the traditional Nuo sacrifice ritual and
widely spread all over China, especially the southern areas.
The dancers of Nuo Dance wear masks with different expressions, some of which
are powerful and bold, some ferocious, some amiable and kind, some simple and
naive, and some smiling and lovely. The dancing forms are rich and the movements
diverse: some of which are agile and brave, some simple and powerful, and some
nimble and bright. In these movements, there are a lot of elements of marital
arts and opera postures, so it has specific flavors and
characters.
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