At a very early time, there was a tribe called Youshen who lived along the Yellow River in Heyang, Shaanxi Province. People of Youshen tribe made a living by hunting and fishing, and their lives were very hard. So they worked and sang to amuse themselves, forming a tradition of being good at reciting.
According to Shangshu Xiashu, people in this area often hold a song and dance carnival when celebrating the harvest and offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods. Accompanied by drum music, they dress up as various birds and beasts, chanting, jumping and dancing. The simplicity of singing and dancing, musical instruments, performance movements, etc.
Later, with the development of society, religious witchcraft and totem worship appeared. On both sides of the Yellow River, at the beginning of the Spring Festival, the people hold an annual ritual of worshipping the gods to pray for a good harvest, which is later recorded by Confucius in the Analects of Confucius.
This folk custom has been passed down all the time, but the content of the sacrificial ceremony has changed with the development of the times. Acting has become an important content of offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods, praying for good luck against epidemics and wishing a good harvest. It has gradually changed from a religious ceremony focusing on entertaining gods to an artistic activity focusing on entertaining people.
In the Tang Dynasty, song and dance dramas appeared here. According to Du You, a famous historian in the Tang Dynasty, the popular repertoires at that time were Da Mian, Tiao Tou, Tiao Niang, Cave Lei Zi and so on. Among them, the form of stepping on a song in "Stepping on a Shake Mother" is very similar to the dance action of jumping on a play.
These musicals and dances originated from the folk, were later absorbed by the court, improved artistically, returned to the folk and spread all over the country. For example, "Step on the Girl" not only spread widely in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei and Shandong, but also spread to Xinjiang through the Silk Road.
In northern Wuren, Xingjiazhuang and Nanyizhuang, where dancing opera is popular, there used to be a legend among the masses that dancing opera went to Bianjing to perform for the court while in Song Renzong.
after the unification of China in the yuan dynasty, it was forbidden for the people to hide iron wares. However, the monitoring of upper-class people entertaining guests, performing gongs and drums, and drinking for fun is a little slack. The people also took this opportunity to welcome God in the Spring Festival, and literati and farmers gathered together to perform.
in Chenghua period of Ming dynasty, a magistrate of a county collected folk literature and art, abandoned it and continued to perform it. However, because it was banned for too long, it lost its original tune and could only be shown by action, so there was a revival of Hexi dumb jump. Later, after several generations, the performance of civil and military operas gradually appeared.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Xu Liantang, a brother from Xinli Village, Dongwang, Heyang, once entered the theater as an academician and a gongsheng, pretending to be Mudan and performing dancing with farmers.
during Daoguang and Xianfeng years in Qing dynasty, there were many class clubs, and there were more than 3 troupes in villages along the river, which was the heyday of the development of dance drama.
Often, there are several clubs in a village, which are mainly popular in ma jia zhuang xiang's Wuren in the south and north, Dongxichengli, Xingjiazhuang, Songjiazhuang, Nanbeishun villages in Xinchi township, Fangzhen and Yuezhuang in Fangzhen township, Kunlong in Fuliu township, Baichang in Pingzheng township, Lingao in Zhibao township, Nanyi and Xinli in Dongwang township, etc.
after the end of the Qing dynasty, many troupes were dissolved, and the number of dances was decreasing day by day. Only a few villages in Dongxiang managed to perform.
In the spring of p>1949, after the liberation of Dongxiang, Heyang, Xingjiazhuang performed the divine drama "Flame Mountain" at the military-civilian get-together meeting to express condolences to the army marching westward. In the Spring Festival of 1957, Heyang Dance Opera participated in the "Third Folk Music and Dance Exhibition Conference in Shaanxi Province", and a divine drama "Receiving Hong Hai" was jointly performed by Xingjiazhuang artists.
In the spring of p>1963, Nanyizhuang performed for two days and three nights. In 1979, Xingjiazhuang resumed performing traditional repertoires such as "Veteran Victory", "War Horse Super" and "Battle Pan River".
in p>1982, Xingjiazhuang performed "Collecting Fishing Tax" and "Yan Qing Beating", and took part in the drama adjustment in the county. In order to preserve this ancient dramatic art form, in the Spring Festival of 1984, a video was recorded for the dance drama.
When Heyang Dance Opera is performed, there is no professional class club organization, but the performance is organized in the form of social drama. A large village or community has a troupe, or a class of two communities or a class of one village. The cultivation of actors and the inheritance of art are all inherited from father to son and passed down from generation to generation.
There is another difference between Heyang Dance Opera and other operas. No matter whether the cast members are from high or low birth, class generation or status, the clan rules do not discriminate by calling them "performers", and all actors are called "good performers". Therefore, as long as you like, you can be on the same stage, from the promotion, supervision, storage, students, Hanlin bachelor, to farmers and craftsmen.
every village that plays and becomes a good family is called a "play nest". Where the village called "Xiwozi" is called, the community has a theater box, and the village has a stage. Every time there is a performance, there are many good plays, and each has its own merits.
Therefore, since the formation of the dance drama, there have been many outstanding artists, among which the famous artists are Dang Guiyi, Dang Yiping, Dang Jiubao, party emblem Zheng, Li Youcai, Dang Zuoxing, Dang Wanshou, Dang Tiegou, Dang Zhengzhi, Li Guanglu, Dang Renzhi, Dang Guobi, Dang Yanlin, Dang Yunlong, etc. These are all well-known artists praised by people.
Xingjiazhuang is a well-known play nest for dancing, and dancing has a long history. In its heyday, the village was divided into four clubs: East, West, South and Yao, and there were nearly a hundred plays. The West Society is good at literary drama, and the East Society is famous for its martial arts drama. The plays performed by various clubs are different, with different skills and styles.
Generally, the performance of Tiaoxi is during the annual Spring Festival. During the slack season in the twelfth lunar month, the villagers elected leaders to organize rehearsals. The elected leader is called "strategy" and is equipped with several assistants. The assistant, called the "schemer", is responsible for raising performance expenses and rehearsing chores.
except for the good family going out, the villagers donated the insufficient part voluntarily. Apart from cash, most of the donated items are grain, oil and other daily necessities and materials for performances.
Directors are called "Pianists" and some are called "Jumping Mother and Child". They must be proficient in the rehearsed plays, be familiar with the performances of various roles, and be good artists with comprehensive art and excellent acting skills.
On the afternoon of the first day of the Lunar New Year before the jump, clubs beat gongs and drums, commonly known as "beating danzi", to create an atmosphere and inspire people, so as to urge "social workers" to come forward to discuss the performance organization and expenses. On the fifth day of the first month, before dawn, the "good family" carried the drum in the courtyard of the "good family" of our agency and ordinary villagers to "beat the danzi", which was called "town poor ghost", also known as "breaking the five evils". When you arrive at the house, the head of the household will thank you with a pot of wine and a "cold dish".
The "good family" collects the thank-you gifts, and after the "poor town" is over, they will eat the thank-you gifts together, and get together for business. On the same day, it entered the stage of "Niu Gong and Drum", that is, all the clubs gathered gongs and drums in the center of the village to beat each other and encourage each other. The next day, the clubs began to jump in the square, that is, they jumped twice in the morning and afternoon, and each time they landed a few places in different parts of the village.
This kind of dumb jump is mass, and sometimes there are more than 1 people performing, with the actors on the stage and the audience at the end. Most of the performances are martial arts programs, such as Lu Bu in Three Wars, Wu Song Beating Shops, Mukezhai, Lintong Mountain, etc. The next actor cheered around and played a coordinating role. It reached its climax before the Lantern Festival, and it was performed on the stage on the 13th and 14th of the first month.
When jumping on the stage, the gongs and drums are turned on first, and then the "Spring Official" comes on stage. The jump on stage was held in the auditorium in the courtyard of the village Committee. There is a stage for acting in the hall, which can accommodate 3 people. The role of "spring official" is mostly played by "good family", "hometown" and "strategy".
"Chun Guan" usually wears scarlet official clothes, a round-winged gauze cap, a clown face with tofu, and a flower fan, which is similar to the opening of "Deputy End" in Ming zaju. The content is improvised, the sentence is not fixed, or it expresses the local scenery, or tells the oppression of officials, or even names and curses, and makes fun of it. Actors often take the opportunity to express their feelings and vent their anger.
In the past, dancing was performed. After Spring Official Opening, heavenly god blesses the people, Lingguan Beating Taiwan, Five Ghosts Making Judgments, Chicken Fairy Bites Chicken, Kuixing Diandou and other ghost and myth programs were first performed, saying that this was to welcome good luck, send a plague god, give birth to a precious son, and dispel the ominous, and then a folding play or a fight was started.