The Paper Horse Dance, also known as the Jumping Paper Horse, is a funeral dance of the Zhuang people circulating in Wenshan, Maguan, Yanshan and other places. In Wenshan County, and mainly popular in Panzhihua under the Zhai, Shui Che Zhai, new Pingba, high end of the area around the Zhuang soil branch of the settlement.
The paper horse is made of bamboo gabions tied into the shape of a horse, and then painted with paper mounts. The paper horse has a head, eyes, ears, mouth, body, tail and no feet. Before the dance, the dancers from the hollow of the abdomen of the paper horse drilled into the paper horse set in the waist, hands lifting the waist of the paper horse for the dance.
Participants in the dance, mostly eight adult women. Among them, the dance paper horse two people, dance sword two people, dance knife, dance ghost mask, dance handkerchiefs, dance lion each one. The dance is performed with one foot jumping and both feet landing as the basic movement.
Whenever the left foot jumps, the right foot steps sideways to the left front, and when the right foot jumps, the left foot steps sideways to the right front. On the third beat of the jump, the palm of the stride must also point twice on the ground. When jumping around the field, the dancers wearing ghost masks should take care of each other with the dancers in front and behind them, and the left and right feet and the pace of the jump must be the same.
In the dance, horse to horse, lion to hand towel, ghost face knife, knife to knife, make each other fight action. Dance paper horse, but also according to the footwork, rhythm, rhythmic shaking the horse's head left and right, so that the two "horses" for each other to bite, kick, fight. Dance on the horse bells jingle, dust around, really like fighting on the battlefield.
Maguan County, the Zhuang jump paper horse dance, generally by two people or a person to jump. The dancers carry the paper horses on their hands and dance around the coffins of the dead. Their movements are mainly shaking, kicking, jumping and spinning, imitating the horse's posture of lifting its head, shaking its tail and kicking its feet in a circle.
All over the paper horse dance is limited to the funeral.