Ansai Waist Drum Dance
The Ansai waist drum dance is a unique, large-scale folk
dance with a history of more than 2,000 years. Like a hurricane sweeping across
the yellow earth, the dance displays the unsophisticated and wild character of
peasant life on the Loess Plateau, revealing its unique artistic charm.
The drum dance is a traditional lunar New Year and Lantern Festival activity
in Shaanxi
Province . Young people perform the dance throughout their villages while
wishing people a happy New Year. Villagers set off firecrackers to welcome the
arrival of the dancers and invite them to sample their homemade rice wine.
Origin
This type of folk performance is believed to have
originated before the Spring
and Autumn Period (770-476) as a religious activity to greet gods and dispel
evil. In the past, Shaanxi villagers used the drum dance to pray for good
weather, a successful harvest and a happy life.
Decayed wooden drums covered with boa skins have been unearthed from the Yin
ruins of Anyang
City , Henan
Province, suggesting that waist drums appeared more than 3,000 years ago. It
is believed that waist drums were originally used in ancient times by Chinese
soldiers stationed at the border to sound alarms, train troops or accompany
cavalry (matching to the rhythm of horse hooves) as the soldiers advanced.
This theory is evidenced by a concentration of waist drums in frontier
fortress regions near the Great
Wall , including martial costumes and other dance elements.
Ways of Performing
The
Ansai waist drum dance is an extremely impressive spectacle that consists of
vigorous dances and leaps accompanied by frenetic drumming. The dancers wear
costumes and headdresses similar to those of ancient Chinese soldiers.
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