Crowds of people will go out into the street in the evening and dance together in a line or a circle formation. Yangge (Chinese: 秧歌; pinyin: Yānggē; lit.

A form of lion dance similar to today's lion dance was described as early as the Tang Dynasty, the modern form of the dragon dance however may be a more recent development.

Many of the traditional dances have a long history.

Rulers from various dynasties collected folk dances, many of which eventually became court dances. The art of Chinese dance traces its origins to a time before … This version of the dance incorporated socialist elements, for example the leader of the dance group would hold a sickle instead of umbrella, and it is also known as "struggle yangge" or "reform yangge". [18] A few examples of their dances: In the entertainment centres called wazi during the Song Dynasty, various theatrical forms flourished and Chinese opera began to take shape, and dance started to become merged into opera. There are also 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China, and each ethnic minority group in China also has its own folk dances. Folk dances are important historically in the development of dance in China, some of the earliest dances in court rituals and ceremonies may have evolved from folk dances.

In the 1940s, the Chinese Communist Party launched the new yangge movement where the dance was adopted as a means of rallying village support. [28] The National Ballet of China was founded on the last day of 1959 as the Experimental Ballet Company of the Beijing Dance School. Yang Liping, one of the most famous dancers in China.

Folk dance is a favorite art form in China and is hugely popular with the Chinese people. They will swing their bodies to music played by drum, trumpet, and gong. I studied Chinese classic and folk dance in my secondary school.

It is popular in both the countryside and cities in northern China. [2][3], There are two major types of yangge, one is Stilt Yangge which is performed on stilts, the other is Ground Yangge which is more common and is performed without stilts. [27] In the following years ballets such as Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet were performed.

Lantern Dance - a dance found in Southern China. The movement is free and brisk, imitating the valor of a tribe excelling in horsemanship and marksmanship.[10]. It is prevalent in the Dai and Jingpo minority autonomous prefectures as well as gathering areas of the Dai people. The earliest Chinese character for "dance", , written in the oracle bones, is itself a representation of a dancer holding oxtails in each hand. For example, the Constellation Dance was performed to procure as much seed grain as there are stars in the sky, while the Harpoon Dance was associated to Fuxi who according to the mythology gave the Han people fish net, and the Plough Dance was connected to Shennong, the god of agriculture.[10].

A great number of dances were recorded in the Tang dynasty, for example there are over 60 Grand Compositions alone which are large scale performances from the Tang court, and there were tens of thousands of musicians and dancers at the Imperial palaces.[3].
A version of lion dance resembling modern lion dance was described by Tang poet Bai Juyi in his poem "Western Liang Arts" (西凉伎), where the dancers wear a lion costume made of a wooden head, a silk tail and furry body, with eyes gilded with gold and teeth plated with silver, and ears that moves. Ballroom dances however reappeared after the liberalisation of China later in the century, and it is now commonly found performed by many people in public parks in the morning as exercise. [30], Folk dances of ethnic minorities in China, China National Ethnic Song and Dance Ensemble, "Hinc sunt leones — two ancient Eurasian migratory terms in Chinese revisited", "Ancient ritual dance performed in E China", "Step-by-step guide to dance: National Ballet of China", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dance_in_China&oldid=980589862, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

It is especially popular among older people. The term ‘folk dance’ was accepted until the mid-20th century. In more recent times, the art of dance in China has enjoyed a resurgence, and modern developments in Chinese dances are continuing apace. There are three major types of yangge in the Shandong province, the Haiyang yangge, Jiaozhou yangge, and the guzi (鼓子 "drum") yangge. Dragon dances mentioned include a dance performed during a ritual to appeal for rain at time of drought as Chinese dragon was associated with rain,[6][7] acts in the baixi variety shows where performers dressed up as a green dragon playing a flute, and acts where fish turned into a dragon. It performs classical Chinese dance, ethnic and folk dance, and story-based dance, with orchestral accompaniment and solo performers. The leader of the procession of dancers is called the santou or "Umbrella" who wields an umbrella to lead the movement of the group. The art of dance reached a peak in the Tang Dynasty, and the dances of the period were highly diverse and cosmopolitan, dances from Central Asia in particular were popular.

[1] Some Chinese dances today such as dancing with long sleeves have been recorded since the very early periods, dating from the at least as early as the Zhou Dynasty. This page was last edited on 27 September 2020, at 10:02. The Peacock Dance is the most famous traditional folk dance of the Dai Minority in China. It is popular in both the countryside and cities in northern China. [9], The performers of Manchurian Yangge in Northeast China usually wear traditional Manchu clothes of the area.

There is a long recorded history of various forms of dance in China. These musical plays owed something to the modern drama (huachu) — in particular in their more . [27] During the Cultural Revolution under the control of Madame Mao, Revolutionary Model dramas came to the fore, and the repertory was eventually reduced to two ideological ballets - The Red Detachment of Women and The White Haired Girl.


The dance was simplified into a pattern of three-quick-steps forward, one-step-backward, pause and repeat. The art of dance however declined after the Tang dynasty. China dance, as a comprehensive art form, is an important part of the ancient Chinese term "Yue" which includes several elements such as poems, songs, dances and music.

The most important dances of the early period were the ritual and ceremonial music and dances called yayue, and these dances were performed at the imperial court until the Qing dynasty, but only survive today as performances in Confucian ceremonies. All rights reserved, Tel: +86-773-3810160 USA/CA:1-888 666 0951, 6-Day Guilin Yangshuo Longsheng Special Tour.