From the history of the development of dance, we know that different categories of dance, arising from the need to reflect ( ) and express the content of different social life; with the development of the times, due to the dance in the expression of the theme of the field of the continuous expansion of the dance form is also corresponding to the development and change, will inevitably give rise to a new genre of dance and a new variety of dance. Therefore, we learn to study the types of dance, in order to be able to understand more y the characteristics of dance art, the law of artistic development of dance, familiar with and master the art of dance to reflect and express the social life of various styles and methods. This is an important significance for our dance
creation, dance appreciation and dance criticism.
Section 1: Historical Formation and Development of China's Dance Types
The earliest information we have on dance images in China is a dance pattern pottery basin unearthed in the fall of 1973 at the Shang Sun Jia Zhai Cemetery in Datong County, Qinghai Province. According to the evidence, it is a product of about five thousand years ago, equivalent to the Neolithic era of primitive society. In the inner wall of this pottery basin near the mouth of the basin, there are four parallel banding, banding painted with three groups of dancers image, each group of five people, face and body slightly to the side, each group of two people next to the side of the outer arm are painted with two lines, may be to indicate that the arm swinging like. They are holding hands, facing in one direction, stepping and dancing together neatly.
Secondly, about two thousand years ago in the Western Han Dynasty copper storage shell cover decoration (unearthed in Yunnan Jinning Shizhai Mountain), carved by the Dian feather dance graphic, *** twenty-three people, in addition to one person with a belt knife, the other twenty-two people, eight people right-handed feather, fourteen people left-handed feather, are wearing feathered hats decorated with bird pecking, upper body bare, waist tie feather belt skirt, after dropping the feathered tail, barefoot, the whole body dressed up in the shape of birds, dance gestures completely consistent with the dance. They are dressed in the shape of a bird, and their dance movements are identical. ①
From the above two illustrations, we can see that these dances are mass collective dance scenes, with the dancers stepping to a uniform rhythm and performing the same dance movements. The latter's costumes and the simulated movements and shapes of birds and animals are a reflection of the hunting life of ancient people. These dances may be a lyrical dance performed by the masses collectively to express the joyful and joyful emotions after the victory of labor and a good harvest.
China's ancient books "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals - ancient music chapter" contained in the "Ge Tian's music": only it people manipulate the tail of the cow, cast enough to sing eight Min: one said that the people, the second said that the bird of paradise, the third said that the grass is wonderful four days to fight the five valleys, the fifth said that respect for the sky is often, the sixth said that up to the emperor's work, the seventh said that according to the ground Germany, the eight said that the beasts of the pole. The first part of the song is a dance of three people holding a cow's tail as a dance tool, they are singing and dancing together. From the content of the eight-stanza song, it mainly expresses people wishing for the prosperity of the people, lush grass and trees, and abundant harvests, paying homage to the ancestors, the heaven
Emperor and the earth's bounty bestowed on people, and the general ( ) is to pray for the large number of breeding of animals and fowls.
From the content related to labor life reflected in this dance and the ideal aspirations of the people
expressed in it, it is obviously
more enriched than those dances mentioned above which express a single emotion.
Additionally, the famous musical dance of the Zhou Dynasty, "Dawu", which glorifies the military action of King Wu's expedition to Feng, is
divided into six segments:
"The first segment: it begins with a long drumming, presumably a prelude to the dance. The dance team is assembled and ready to take the stage, then the dancers, arms in hand, come out from the north, standing tall, singing slowly and long, showing King Wu's determination to conquer the feudal domains and awaiting the arrival of the lords."
"Stage 2: The dance shifts into a fiery battle atmosphere, 'Flying in the wind,' showing the Zhou army's vanguard force, led by Jiang Taigong, pointing directly at the Shang capital, Chaogou. At this point, someone on both sides of the dance team vibrates a dao, to indicate that military orders are being conveyed. The dance team then splits into two lines and makes fierce stabbing movements, dancing and advancing at the same time, indicating that the Shang have been destroyed."
"Paragraph 3: Indicates the return south after the triumph. The dance line may only make a 'passing' movement back to the return."
"Section 4: Indicates that the small southern states have submitted to the Zhou and the southern border has been stabilized. The dance team may have used a grand, symmetrical, and stable composition to show the momentum of the ten thousand states coming to court."
"Segment 5: The dance team then splits into two rows to indicate that the Duke of Zhou is on the left and the Duke of Zao is on the right, assisting the King of Zhou in his rule. Then there are methodical changes to various difficult and complex formations. At this point, the tempo picks up and the music enters a 'chaotic' section. Then, a neat formation is formed again, and the dancers are all seated, making a low still ) scene. It indicates that the country has been well governed and the nation is at peace."
"Segment 6: The dance team reassembles, arranges itself neatly, and solemnly expresses its reverence for the King of Zhou. The whole dance ends.'
We can see from these six segments of the dance that although it is still a mass collective dance, it has already generalized and symbolically expressed a certain plot content, and thus has the elements of a narrative dance.
With the advancement and development of social life, the content and form of dance are also constantly enriched and developed. For example, during the Han Dynasty, there were works that expressed certain storylines and portrayed characters with different character traits. Xijing Miscellany" contained in the Han Dynasty Jiao Ruai play in the "East China Sea Huang Gong" is played by two people mainly to show the action of people and tigers fighting stories: "There is the East China Sea, Huang Gong, when he was a young man for the art of making snakes and tigers, wearing a red gold knife, to Jiang Zhaoshu hair, stand up the clouds and mist, sit down into the mountains and rivers. But when he was old, he was tired and exhausted, and he drank too much wine, so he could not perform his art again. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, a white tiger was seen in the East China Sea, and Huang Nai went to hate it with his red sword. He was killed by the tiger."
The Tang Dynasty saw the emergence of song and dance dramas that combined dance, singing, and dramatic plots to represent certain characters and stories. For example, "Treading Ballad Lady" is a famous masterpiece. According to the Tang Cui Lingqin, "the record of the Church", "the Northern Qi people surnamed Su, Bao nose; the real does not serve, but the self-proclaimed Langzhong; addicted to alcohol, every drunkenness, beating his wife. Wife articulate grief, complained to the neighbors. People get it. Husband dressed in women's clothes, walk into the marching song; each stack, the bystanders and the cloud, 'Tap ballad and come! Tap Rhyme Niang Bitter and Come! As she walks and sings, she is called 'Tap Rhyme'; as she claims to be wronged, she says she is bitter. When their husbands arrive, they make a show of beating and fighting, for the sake of laughter and joy."
Song Dynasty, due to the unprecedented development of industry and commerce, there are many prosperous big cities. With the prosperity of the urban economy, folk dance and other performing arts also had a great development. In order to express a richer life, portray a variety of characters and show the complexity of the storyline needs, simple dance or song and dance performances can not adapt to the requirements of artistic performance, therefore, in the inheritance of the previous generation of a variety of forms of performing arts on the basis of the song, dance, theater skillfully combined together, resulting in China's national song and dance drama - opera art.
From the above brief review of some dance works in the history of the development of China's ancient dance art, it can be seen that different kinds of dances, are in the development of social life, in order to adapt to the need to reflect and express the different contents came into being. Generally speaking, at the lower stage of social development, the types and genres of dances are relatively simple, while with the continuous enrichment and development of social life, new varieties of dance art will be constantly born, new dance genres will appear, and the evolution and development of dance forms will be more complex and diverse. Especially after our country entered the middle of the 20th century, due to the more rapid development of society, with the arrival of the climax of economic construction, the people's material and cultural life, China's dance art has also been unprecedented prosperity and development. Due to the continuous expansion of the subject matter of dance expression and the strengthening of the breadth and depth of the dance in reflecting the content of social life, it also inevitably promotes the emergence, evolution and development of different kinds of dances of different genres. Among them, not only inherited and carried forward the original varieties of China's folk dance tradition, at the same time, also widely absorbed and borrowed some foreign dance art forms, and make it and China's national dance tradition closely together, according to the expression of the people of China's new life content needs to create a lot of new dance art forms and new dance varieties, so that China's dance art shows a hundred flowers compete with each other in a magnificent scene. The second is to create a new dance art form and new dance varieties according to the need to express the new life of our people.
Section II: Principles and Methods of Classifying Dance in China
The classification of dance, like the classification of other arts, has always been a matter of diverse opinions. This is not only because people have different opinions, different classification methods, and more importantly, the composition of a work of art is often more complex, its artistic characteristics are not so single, often presenting a mixed situation, which gives us a certain degree of difficulty in the work of dance classification. For example, the Red Silk Dance, from the point of view of the style of dance, it is a folk dance; from the point of view of shaping artistic images and reflecting the characteristics of life, it is a lyrical dance; from the point of view of the style of expression and dance genre, it is a group dance; from the point of view of the form of the dance, it is a props dance; from the point of view of the performance venue and the purpose of the show, it is a stage performance of dance; from the point of view of the taste of the dance, it is a refined dance; from the point of view of the characteristics of the ethnicity, it is a Han Chinese dance. From the point of view of national characteristics, it is a Han Chinese dance; from the point of view of nationality, it is a Chinese dance; from the point of view of region, it is an Oriental dance; from the point of view of the age of performers, it is an adult dance; from the point of view of the identity of the dancers, it is a professional dance or an amateur dance ...... We have just casually subdivided it like this, and then we have put the Red Silk Dance into more than ten categories. If we subdivide it further, it can be further divided. Of course, if every dance is categorized in this way, it seems a bit cumbersome and not very necessary. However, the main purpose of citing examples in this way is to illustrate that a category of dance can be distinguished from various angles and in various ways. Secondly, it also shows that the division of the categories of dance art can only be relative, not absolute.
The principles and methods of dividing dance categories are chosen according to certain purposes. Since we want to understand more y the characteristics of the art of dance and to grasp the laws of its artistic development, so as to make the creation of dance develop and grow more healthily and to play a more positive role and influence in social life, we have adopted the principle of dividing the dance categories according to the objective and essential differences between various dances and the ways of expressing their contents uniquely, the different ways of shaping the dance image, and the different roles they play in social life, and so on. Characteristics, to dance category division; at the same time, but also take due account of the dance community in our country for a long time popular, agreed upon some of the usage.
In order to give you a clear, systematic and well-organized understanding of the categories of dance, we have adopted the following classification method.
Divided according to the role )and purpose of dance, dance can be divided into two categories: life dance and artistic dance. (Some people refer to life dance also as self-entertainment dance and art dance as performance dance. According to the actual situation, life dance can include self-entertainment dance, but is not entirely self-entertainment, such as religion, ritual dance; some life dance, such as customary dance, there are many is a certain performance, so this title is not quite appropriate. According to the essence, the so-called life dance is the dance for their own life needs, artistic dance is to perform for others to watch and dance.)
Life dances include six categories: customary dances, religious ceremonial dances, social dances, self-entertainment dances, sports dances, and educational dances.
Artistic dances, in turn, can be divided into the following three kinds:
I. According to the different stylistic characteristics of the dance to divide, can be divided into four categories: classical dance, folk dance, modern dance and new style dance.
Two, according to the genre of dance expression and style characteristics of the division, can be divided into solo dance, duo dance, trio dance, group dance, group dance, song and dance, song and dance theater, dance theater and other eight categories.
Third, according to the method of reflecting the social reality of life and shaping the characteristics of the dance image to divide, can be divided into lyrical dance, narrative dance and dramatic dance three categories.
Section III, the artistic characteristics of different kinds of dance
I. Life dance
Life dance generally refers to a variety of people's lives have a direct and close contact with the utilitarian purpose of a clearer, everyone can participate in a wide range of mass dance activities.
Life dance includes the following categories:
1. customary dance (festivals, only dance)
Many ethnic groups in our country in the marriage, funeral, planting, harvesting, and other festivals, often have to hold a variety of mass dance activities. In these dance activities, the expression of the customs and habits of each ethnic group, social style, cultural traditions and national character traits. It is an important and indispensable part of the spiritual life of people of all nationalities.
For example, the "Marriage Dance" in Hunan Province is a farewell activity in which the female partners accompany the bride before she gets married. It is usually performed two nights before the wedding and ends at midnight. The last night to sing and dance all night, until the next day after dawn, the female companions to dance with the marriage, the bride on the sedan chair, the bride to the groom's home until. The wedding dance consists of the "Jiaozhan Dance", "Walking Horse", "Walking Fire", and "Changing the Letter of Incense", The "Mother Calls the Daughter Back", "Spinning Cotton", "Boat Rowing", and "Water Dance", The dance consists of 12 dances, including "Selling Wine and Liquor", "Pushing the Mill", "A Rhythmic Star", and "Song and Dance". The dancers sing and dance, reflecting the labor life of the women and their rich thoughts and feelings.
The "Funeral Dance" of the Tujia people is a form of dance in the funeral ceremony of the Tujia people in Hunan and Hubei. There is no limit to the number of dancers, and they can be freely combined. Most of the dancers dance in front of the funeral hall of the deceased: first, the drums are beaten by the singer to call for a song, and the dancers follow the rhythm of the drums in order to express their condolences.
Circulating in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Yunnan and other places of the "jumping spring cow", more in the annual "spring" period activities. Generally by two people in the shape of a cow props, performing various movements of the ploughing ox, another person plays the role of a farmer, the performance of ploughing, ploughing, sowing and other labor, dancing and singing, the lyrics are mostly to welcome the spring, to advise the ploughing, and praying for a bumper harvest and other content.
In China, Jilin, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and other provinces inhabited by the Korean people, every fall after the harvest, people will be in the street plaza dance "agricultural music dance". Generally by the "small drum dance", "dance children dance", "elephant hat dance" and so on, when the dance to the climax, the ( ) dance team and the crowd of onlookers into the dance **** dance, express the joy, joy and happiness after the harvest. When the dance reaches its climax, each ( ) dance team and the crowd of onlookers enter the dance field*** and express their joy and happiness after the harvest. The "four-face drum dance" of the Miao people living in Hunan and Guizhou is also a kind of dance performed during the harvest season. The dancers stand on the four sides of the four drums, each holding a drum in both hands and dancing with the drum ****. The main movements are: "starting the drum", "combing the head", "round hand", "back sword", "Wiping", "Turning", "Plowing", "Harrowing", "Planting", "Planting", "Planting", "Planting", "Planting", "Planting", "Planting", "Planting", "Planting", "Planting", "Planting", and so on. rice-planting", "pulling grass", "picking grain", "collecting drums" and so on. The movements are large in amplitude and unrestrained in style, showing the cheerfulness and joyfulness of the Miao youths after getting a good harvest. ③
2. Religious and Ritual Dance (including Witch Dance)
Religious dance is a form of dance that expresses religious concepts, proclaims religious ideas and carries out religious activities. Religious dance is a supernatural, supernatural and mysterious power - a visual reproduction of the gods, so that the invisible God can be perceived as a tangible body, is the mystical power of the personification. It is a part of religious rituals. Mainly used to pray for divine blessings, remove disasters and illnesses, turn bad luck into good fortune, people and animals flourish, a good harvest, or to thank the gods for their gifts. Many regions and ethnic religious rituals in our country, there are such dance activities. Such as folk dance, dance, dance, curtain dance, Buddhism, "playing ghosts", shamanism, "jumping god" and so on are.
Sacrificial dance, is to worship ancestors, God against a ceremonial form of dance. In the past, people used to express their nostalgia for their ancestors or hope that their ancestors and gods and Buddha's blessings on themselves. The Six Dances of the Zhou Dynasty in China is a famous ritual dance. In addition, the "Bo Dance", which has been handed down in Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other places, is the development of the ritual dance of the ancient Bo Festival, and most of them have retained the main features of "driving away ghosts and epidemics".
3. Social Dance
Social dance is the most widely circulated and popular dance activity in people's cultural life. It is a dance for people to have social interaction, promote friendship and contact feelings. Generally refers to a variety of social dance in the ball. In addition, many ethnic minorities in China, such as the "Torch Festival" of the Yi, "Lusheng Festival" of the Miao, "March 3" of the Li, "June 6" of the Buyi, "June 6" of the Hani. June 6", "Bitter Zaza" of the Hani people, "Water Festival" of the Dai people and other festivals in the mass dance activities, mostly young men and women to interact with each other, free choice of spouse social activities, therefore, can also be said to be the social dance of each ethnic group. can be said to be the social dance of various ethnic groups.
4. Self-entertainment dance
Self-entertainment dance is a kind of dance with the purest purpose in the dance activities of the people, which has no other purpose except self-entertainment and self-pleasure. It is neither to dance to wear a dark person to see, but also not to give others in the emotion and thought to infect or influence, just with the dance to express and vent their inner emotional impulse, and in the process of expressing and venting emotions, to obtain the full satisfaction of aesthetic pleasure. Of course, sometimes this dance will not inevitably cause bystanders or the same dancer's passionate response, and this objective response, naturally, will give the dancer's own emotions to influence and stimulate, which will further stimulate the dancer's improvisational dance inspiration, so that the dance radiates a unique luster, so that the dancer can feel the greater dance aesthetic activities of pleasure and joy. Such as China's Han folk dance "Yangge" and some ethnic minority folk dance, as well as Western "disco", "breakdancing", etc., are people's favorite self-indulgent dance.
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5. Sports dance
Sports dance, because dance is a kind of human body movement art, so it has always been fitness sports. Recently, people have further combined dance and sports to create an artistic aesthetic way to exercise the body, so that the physical and mental development of the new varieties of sports dance. Such as a variety of fitness dance, rhythmic gymnastics, middle-aged and elderly disco, ice dance, water dance and so on. In addition, in a broad sense, China's national martial arts, symbols, simulation of a variety of animals and specific figures of the image of the Elephantine Boxing, Five Animal Dance and Dance Sword, Dance Sword and so on can be part of the sports dance. (In recent years, ballroom dance, international standard ballroom dance, in our country popularity and popularity is very wide, a variety of competitions constantly, some sports departments it is categorized as sports dance, and set up a sports dance organization. Of course, the social dance can not be said that there is no certain role of fitness, but its main role is not exercise, so this title is inaccurate.)
6. Educational Dance
Educational dance refers to the dance activities of schools and kindergartens for aesthetic education and the dance courses offered. It is understood that many schools in Europe and the United States attach great importance to the aesthetic education of students, in addition to music, art classes, but also set up a dance class, optional for students; some schools also have a Department of Dance, both to train professional dancers, but also to dance enthusiasts to teach dance culture. Therefore, they have formed a specialized discipline of education dance. Some of our universities and colleges generally pay insufficient attention to aesthetic education, except for a few institutions to open a dance class, generally do not set up this course, dance-loving students can only be in the amateur art groups for dance activities. Therefore, the so-called educational dance in our country refers more to early childhood dance and children's dance. In fact, our ancestors still attach great importance to the dance education of their children. For example, about three thousand years ago in the Zhou Dynasty, the content of the study of music and dance education for the children of the nobles, as well as the course of the process. "Zhou Li - musician" note: "said to teach the dance at a young age, the internal rules that: thirteen dance spoon, into the child dance elephant, twenty dance "Daxia"." "Dance spoon" is generally believed to mean "small dance", is a literary dance, including the Zhou Dynasty, six famous ritual dance: "Block Dance", "Feather Dance", "Royal Dance", "Eeni Dance", "Dry Dance", "People Dance". The "Dance of the Elephant" belongs to the category of martial dances, "the dance of stabbing and cutting when the elephant is used in battle", "probably imitating the combat movements of breaking the elephant formation. The Daxia, one of the Six Dances, is said to express and glorify the great achievements of Xia Yu in ruling the water, and was used to worship the mountains and rivers during the Zhou Dynasty. That is to say, at the age of thirteen one learns the literary dance, at the age of fifteen (an adult child) learns the martial dance, and at the age of twenty one learns the musical dance, which glorifies the chiefs of the clans.
The reason why our country's educational dance cannot be widely popularized lies in the fact that there are still a lot of people who do not know enough about the functions and roles of aesthetic education, and there are people who lack the knowledge of the dance culture and do not understand that the art of dance is a kind of national culture, which is important in cultivating and beautifying people's emotional thoughts and moral sentiments, cultivating unity and fraternity, strengthening etiquette, and improving physical and mental health have the important works of subtlety and influence. . I believe that, with the improvement of the cultural quality of our people, the role of art aesthetic education to deepen the understanding of dance education will be more and more attention, therefore, looking to the future, educational dance will have a more broad prospects for development.
Art dance refers to the professional and amateur dancers, through the observation of social life, experience, analysis, concentration, generalization and imagination, artistic creation, so as to produce the theme of distinctive ideas, emotionally rich, complete form, with a typical artistic image, by a small number of people on the stage or the square performances for the general public to watch the dance works. According to its different artistic characteristics, can be roughly divided into the following three categories.