Dancing to Beijing

Intending no disrespect to her mother, her teacher, Shi felt that her dancing skills had, essentially, been fostered “in the wild.” Striving for more, Shi attended first Jishou County Dance and Drama School, then the Peking Opera Troupe of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture for professional training. By the end of her education she had acquired more dancing skills and learned kung fu. With these, she could perform the Miao drum dance to perfection.

In 1964, aged just 15, Shi was invited to Beijing’s Great Hall of the People for a joint performance of national ethnic group troupes. She remembered that her team’s Miao drum dance received three rounds of thundering applause from the ebullient audience. And after the performance, as a Miao performer representative, she met with China’s top leaders including Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai.

Now, 48 years have passed, but Shi still remembers vividly the moment Chairman Mao shook her hand.

Since then, Shi has been fully committed to dancing. The definitive drum dancing queen, Shi is a winner of many national and regional dance awards. “I can skip food, but I could never skip beating the drum, it’s a part of my life,” Shi said.

Discovering Life through Dance

“In Miao drum dancing, many movements are related to everyday life and farming, aspects central to Miao culture, such as plowing fields, harvesting crops, personal grooming and embroidering,” Shi explained. With one hand beating the drum, she passes the other by her head, mimicking combing the hair; a bending movement symbolizes spinning; twisting fingers and raising the forearm represents embroidery; other day-to-day activities such as digging, sowing seeds and harvesting are also symbolically acted out through dance. In several minutes, daily work scenes of the Miao people are vividly revealed.

A central instrument in ancient sacrificial ceremonies and wars of the Miao people, the drum was the dancing totem of their tribes, revealing their spirit and soul. Their migration from north to south scattered Miao tribes, but whenever they heard the beat of the Miao drum, they would understand its implicit meaning.

Over the years, Shi has added many modern elements to traditional Miao drum dancing, enhancing its rhythmic beats and distinctive features as well as its choreographic complexity, so appealing to the greater public.

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