Witch Dance in Qiang Dance

Qiang witch dance is a kind of dance in the ritual activities of wizards. In the early days of primitive society, due to low productivity, human beings could not make a scientific explanation for the laws of material movement and natural phenomena in the universe. It seemed that there was a supernatural force dominating the world, so the concept of ghosts and gods came into being. Wizards are considered to be associated with ghosts and gods, speaking on their behalf and carrying out their will. Witchcraft dance has the following forms: it is a dance to worship mountain gods and pray for a bumper harvest, which comes from the customs of ancient Xiqiang. Dancers wear masks such as phoenix, lion, tiger, leopard, cow, sheep and pig, and the phoenix leads the dance. There are traditional routines in the dance, which are divided into three sets: "filling the column", "Gansu column" and "central column" to sacrifice birds. This heritage is still circulating among the Qiang people in Maowen County. On the first day of October every year, young adults hold feathers and go up the mountain to sing and dance to entertain the gods. I [1

This is a dance for the old man's funeral. After the funeral, the relatives and friends of the deceased all participated in the dance, usually performing outdoors. The content of accompaniment is mainly to praise the noble character of the deceased before his death and express his nostalgia. The dance atmosphere is low. When dancing, men are in front and women are behind, holding hands in an arc or circle, and the movement is steady and slow. Trouble pots in different places have different styles and characteristics, some are repeated in one step, and some are active in dance steps.