What is the cultural focus of Chinese folk (folk) dance in the period of occurrence, growth and shaping of Chinese traditional dance?

China's folk dances have a long history and are very rich, and can generally be divided into two categories: Han folk dances and minority folk dances. Ethnic folk dance circulates in the folk, subject to folk culture, improvised performance but relatively stable style, to self-entertainment as the main function of the dance form. Folk dances of different regions, countries and nationalities have very obvious differences in performance skills and styles due to the influence of living environment, customs, lifestyle, national character, cultural traditions, religious beliefs and other factors, as well as the age and gender of the performers and other physical conditions. Folk dance is characterized by simplicity, variety, rich content and vivid image, and has always been an indispensable source of material for the creation of classical dance, court dance and professional dance in various countries.

Because of the different social structures, economic types, and production methods of our country's various ethnic groups, folk dances have been passed down in specific time and space, and in specific groups for thousands of years, and "specific time and space" mostly includes religious ceremonies, ancestor worship and prayers to the gods, yearly gatherings, production and labor, marriages and funerals, and love affairs, and other folklore matters; "Specific groups" refers to the people of ethnic minorities located in the frontier, most of them love to use their own folk songs and dances to express their joy, anger, sadness and happiness, that is, the daily life of labor breaks or friends and relatives get together, they also want to sing and dance a little bit, folk songs and dances are an important part of their spiritual life. Our dancers organize the original dances, extracting a large number of separately usable action materials from pure folk styles and dynamics, and "elementalizing" them into phrases that can be used to formulate sentences. Obviously, this process is bound to create a different result, folk dance has been "dismembered", but the function of folk dance has been expanded, although it seems to be far away from the "folk", but closer to the stage.

One: the cultural structure of folk dance

Folk dance is a cultural phenomenon, which uses the human body movements and thoughts and feelings to express social life, national history, and to convey feelings and emotions. Folk dance is closely linked with the material and spiritual civilization, as early as the prehistoric period, our ancestors used the "hands of the dance, the foot of the" to express their feelings of excitement, dance activities almost permeate the labor, hunting, fighting, rituals and sex and other fields. Humans entered the class society after the primitive dance also followed the development of differentiation, part of the dance for the slave masters to perform, and later developed into a court dance; the other part of the dance is the slaves, from the ritual or other functions of the dance gradually developed into folk dance, due to the uneven development of the history of various ethnic groups, some ethnic minorities do not have their own national text, so few of them left their traces in the history books. However, what is extremely valuable is the folk dance rooted in the fertile soil of people's life, after thousands of years of inheritance and evolution, it is still circulating in the life of the masses of various ethnic groups, especially in some ethnic minority areas located in the border areas with inconvenient transportation, until the 1950s and 1960s of the 20th century, it still retains more of the original features of the dance, with the prehistoric nature of the dance. Their performance forms, style characteristics and their contents reflect the cultural connotation, involving the national history, religious beliefs, production methods, customs, morals and ethics, aesthetic interests and other aspects, it can be said that folk dance is a total repertoire of social and cultural intertwining and fusion.

Two: the diversity, variety and complexity of the development of folk dance

The change of folk dance culture is firstly manifested in the large capacity of its connotation and function, and under the mutual penetration and dyeing of multiple cultures of the contemporary society, the ancient and modern are intertwined, and the old and the new are mixed. The horse race of Yushu grassland in Qinghai is a far-famed grassland event in the Kumba Tibetan area. Every year in July and August, when the water and grass are abundant and the cattle are fat and the horses are strong, ethnic songs and dances, Gesar raps, horse races, archery and other performances are held on the grassy beach of the Jiegu town of Yushu, as well as trade exchanges, etc. At the beginning of the 90's, the monasteries of various Tibetan Buddhist sects in Yushu moved their puja dance, "Qiangmu," into the folklore festival of the horse race to be performed, and for several centuries, "Qiangmu" has been used as a Tibetan Buddhist puja activity, as a means for the Tibetan Buddhist community to perform its pujas. As an important part of Tibetan Buddhist ritual activities, its inheritance has always adhered to the principle of transmitting inwardly but not outwardly, i.e., following the rules performed by lamas and monks in monasteries. Now the living Buddha and lamas of the monasteries voluntarily perform the Dharma dance and mass folk songs and dances, thus making the Qiangm break out of the confinement of the monasteries, enhancing the performativity and entertainment, downplaying the mysticism and intimidating sense of the Dharma, and bringing the relationship between the religion and the secular world closer, which is of great positive significance in the Tibetan area where all the people believe in the religion and which is, it can be said, a result of the Party's implementation of the ethnic policy in the new period. The changes in the Qiangm Dharma Dance are not only reflected in the shift in performance time and space and the simplification of performance procedures, but more importantly in the strengthening of religious secularization.

Three: Cultural Construction of Ethnic Folk Dance

The orientation of the cultural construction of Chinese ethnic folk dance is to take the folk dance culture of all Chinese ethnic groups as the basis, the local cultural characteristics as the basis, and to strengthen the construction of the nature of Chinese ethnic folk dance as the goal, and at the same time, on the basis of the comparative research on the development of the culture of other ethnic folk dances, to perfect the disciplinary system of contemporary Chinese ethnic folk dance. While studying the history of Chinese folk dances of various ethnic groups and their inheritance and development, we should also continue to study and improve the construction of teaching staff, teaching materials, class groups, practical teaching exchanges and teaching management of Chinese folk dances. What's more, we should continue to study the essential characteristics of the dynamics of ethnic folk dance, and on the basis of ethnicity, folklore, and folk culture, we should explore y, go to the folk, excavate, organize, and refine the ethnic folk dances that have not been included in the teaching materials to improve the existing teaching material system. Cultivate the top talents of folk dances (one is to cultivate the top talents of actors and the other is to cultivate the top talents of teachers), and give different learning focuses to different students, because different folk dances have their completely different style characteristics. We know that it is impossible for a student to learn all aspects of folk dance in just four years. Therefore, students must be able to do something about one or two dances while learning the basic education in a comprehensive way. Practice, teaching, communication, internship is an important part of the educational process, is an important step to verify the acquired knowledge or teaching results and the ability of students. If the construction of dance practice, teaching and exchange is well grasped, it will enable students to get the opportunity of social practice earlier during the study period, and really connect theory with practice. In fact, folk dance creation, no matter how the performance and development, must be in the "folk" on the four words work, otherwise it will be lost in the sea of dance personality, lose gender, disappear in the artificial, subjective dance fabrication. The study of folk dance must start from the essence to the phenomenon, and then return to the essence from the phenomenon, so as to form a virtuous circle. Of course, we are not stubborn, we have to embrace the world with an open mind, change, innovation is always a sign of continued survival, development is the hard way.

Four: folk dance technique

1. Technique stylization

Chinese classical dance technique pursues the limit of the ability to demonstrate the quality, while Chinese folk dance technique pursues the perfect embodiment of the aesthetic style. The technique and body rhythm in classical dance can be independent of each other, while the technique in folk dance is closely integrated with the dance style, which is difficult to separate. In other words, the technique of folk dance is not pure technique, but stylized technique. The development trend of Chinese folk dance technique should be the strengthening and development of stylized technique. Stylized techniques include all kinds of props dance techniques in folk dances, as well as spinning, jumping, turning and other techniques unique to folk dances of different nationalities. Ming Wenjun, Associate Professor of the Department of Chinese Folk Dance, in his article "Thoughts from the Graduation Class of Xiamen Class", has put forward the idea of developing the use of props to the limit and constituting the teaching conception of folk dance skills. Practice has proved that this teaching concept is scientific and feasible. Our folk dance has many characteristic props dance forms, which can be excavated, researched and developed. For example, the Han Chinese handkerchiefs, fans, drums, umbrellas, sticks; Tibetan Jeba drums, braided drums, back drums; Mongolian chopsticks, cups and bowls; Korean long drums, elephant hats and so on. There are also various kinds of rotations in folk dances, which are also highly stylized techniques. For example, the Uyghur dance in a variety of kneeling turn, Shak turn, air turn, flat turn, fast, colorful, abruptly still, like a falcon circling against the wind. While the Korean folk dance in the rotation of the smooth, elegant, as if the crane leisurely.

2. Technique emotional

The technique in folk dance is closely related to the exudation of life emotion and atmosphere of the scene, is the materialization of the inner passion of folk dancers. If there is no emotional input, and then difficult, and then superb technique form in folk dance will become pale, colorless. I have seen some folk dance repertoire from the TV video, though I can't remember their names now. But what I remember vividly is that they are "skillful" are very strong, in the performance of the movement of the spinning son 3600, still control the legs 1800 ....... But these skills have become separated from the dancer's emotions and dance style outside the "heartless action", and thus no artistic infectivity to speak of, but let a person feel puzzled. In this regard, I am more appreciative of the Yunnan Provincial Song and Dance Troupe created the men's trio dance "boy, four strings, horse cherry blossom", its enthusiasm and fun, simple and unadorned style so that people never get tired of watching and memorable. This program also arranges some techniques such as kicking the purple gold crown upside down, small flip, grabbing the face, etc., but these techniques are accomplished in the natural outpouring of the actors' emotions, and in the layers and layers of the dance's mood. This kind of emotional technique greatly enriches the artistic expression of the dancers and enhances the artistic influence of the dance.

3. Artistic skills

With the development of the times, with the folk dance from the square to the theater of the transformation, the function of folk dance skills is not only limited to exuding emotion and rendering the atmosphere, it will be gradually shaped to the image of the dance, the performance of the character psychology, to create the artistic direction of the stage mood development. Some people say that the folk dance performed by Yang Liping has no skill at all, why can it gain the general public's favor and the experts' favorable comments? In fact, when analyzed carefully, Yang Liping's unique use of movement vocabulary is the highest embodiment of the artistic skills of folk dance. The dance modeling and dynamics in "The Spirit of the Bird" is different from the original Dai Peacock Dance in the square. Through artistic exaggeration and deformation, it further sublimates the noble and transcendent spirituality of the peacock, creating an artistic wonderland that seems to be real and unreal. As Prof. Yu Ping commented, "The excellence of The Spirit of the Peacock lies in the fact that it uses 'technique' to create 'form' without being 'technique' or 'form' oriented. The best thing about The Spirit of the Sparrow is that it uses 'technique' to create 'form' without being burdened by 'technique' and 'form'. When you are enjoying Yang Liping's "Spirit of the Bird", you can't find any traces of skills at all, because "Yang Liping is using the life consciousness of 'technique to seek the way' to create 'the spiritual light of life'. In that leaping and dancing peacock, Yang Liping poured all her own life feeling, life realization, life interest and life wisdom, so that this dance monologue overflows with a quiet sense of life harmony and perseverance of life self-confidence." Therefore, I think that the highest state of folk dance technique is to make it artistic, so that the whole process of technique is completely hidden in the dance performance of emotion, rhythm, and not "show the mountain", deliberately. The relationship between the inheritance and development of folk dance is like the foundation and the house. "Inheritance" is the foundation of a house, and "development" is the house built on top of the foundation. If there is a lack of this foundation, it is impossible to talk about building any house; similarly, if it is not for building a house, what is the meaning of just laying a foundation? Therefore, the inheritance of folk dance is for the sake of development, while the development depends on the inheritance, and the relationship between them is complementary. The following are some of our views on this issue.

Five: inheritance

We above the inheritance is compared to the foundation of a house, then, the inheritance is fundamental. How well is this foundation laid? Is it solid? It directly affects the house. We engage in dance, theater, gymnastics is not often such a "seven points of the keys three points of the lift" mnemonic? If you want to later "mention" turn good, turn high, you have to work hard to practice this "seven points of the key". Lay a good foundation, how to "flip" in the future, what house to build, that can be easily familiar with the water to the end. Inheritance is fundamental, in the score, it should also be "seven points", therefore, its importance is conceivable. Especially nowadays, we believe that this work should be emphasized. Why do we say so? There are four reasons. The Cultural Revolution's ten years of catastrophe, our national folk art flower, was destroyed to the situation of carving zero withered. Folk artists, some have died, the remaining age is also quite old, can only be taught orally can not teach, in view of this situation, such as timely excavation, sorting out, there is a risk of loss. Because of the "Gang of Four" out of counter-revolutionary needs, in the field of literature and art put forward "literature and art must be for the current political service", the theme of the work must be "class struggle as the program", in the creative method must follow the "three emphases". Literature and art have embarked on a metaphysical path of creation, and everything has been replaced by conceptualized slogans. The content of the dance is either "offering apples", or "offering fragrant tea", "offering shawls", etc., whatever is available in the hometown. Otherwise, it is Chairman Mao came to my hometown, came to my border village; as if Chairman Mao has seen the wheat can grow well without fertilizer, Chairman Mao has seen the cattle and sheep can grow fat and strong without care. How can this kind of conceptualized dance without real feelings be welcomed by the masses? Our folk dances were originally colorful, but at that time only a few dance phrases were used on stage as a kind of political terminology. As long as you slightly out of this line, you are said to be the bourgeoisie low vulgar mood, unhealthy performance and so on. It is this so-called "revolutionary literature and art" that has caused our precious national heritage to lose its original luster. Although our actors and actresses wear costumes of various nationalities, what they dance is no longer the popular folk dance. In such a situation, our actors do not love to perform, the audience does not love to see, choreographers and directors do not know what to do. To reverse this situation as soon as possible, it is necessary to warm the heritage left to us from our ancestors. Although some of our old experts, the old choreographer once mastered some of the traditional things, but they gave the "Gang of Four" in the decade of catastrophe "stick" to beat the dizzy, and now more or less still have some "after-effects of concussion! Now there are still some "after-effects of concussion", the original familiar things have become rusty or forgotten, the national folk materials collected have been burnt or lost, and our young generation has been isolated from the national folk arts for ten years. All these show that the inheritance of traditional ethnic folk art is an urgent task. However, in order to inherit and develop national folk art, there must be deep national feelings - national self-respect and pride; and this self-respect and pride can only be strengthened gradually in the process of learning from the national folk art, and constantly understanding and familiarizing ourselves with the colorful art of the national folk.

In the single dance competition in Dalian, there are some excellent folk dances, such as "Water", "Chasing Fish", "Jinshan Drums" and other programs, but also a large number of programs reflecting the natural scenery and birds, flowers, insects and fishes, which is a very welcome phenomenon, and we believe that our nation is the best at expressing and sending their ideals and ambitions through the depiction of nature and nature's creatures. We think this is a very welcome phenomenon. "Touching the feelings and putting them into the scenery" has always been the characteristic and traditional method of our folk art, which is especially prevalent in our classical literature and folk legends, and is even more prominent in our poems, lyrics and Chinese paintings. And these successful art treasures will always shine with their eye-catching luster in the world's art treasury. Originally, the adoption of this traditional artistic technique in the art of dance is beyond reproach. But why do some comrades accuse the single dance competition of having too many "birds, flowers, insects and fish"? In our opinion, this is mainly due to the low quality. This is just like: although many good flowers are still too few, although few weeds are too many. This phenomenon of low quality, further illustrates that we must be as early as possible to learn honestly from the excellent national folk art, from which to suck its rich nutrients, in order to constantly enrich and improve the content and quality of our creations. In the past few years, we have strengthened cultural exchanges with the outside world, and western culture has been pouring in. In the cultural exchanges, we have broadened our horizons and absorbed a lot of useful things, which have greatly promoted our creative practice. Programs such as "Cutting the Strings", "Wedding on the Penal Colony", "Hope" and "Goodbye! Mom" and other programs have made great achievements in borrowing and absorbing foreign things, in contrast, we feel that the innovation of folk dance is not enough. The reason is that our roots are not deep in the folk. Take Guangdong Province as an example, it has been several years since the downfall of the "Gang of Four", but the importance of Guangdong's folk dances still remains on the verbal level, and the choreographers are still floating on the top (this is not the responsibility of the choreographers, but rather, they do not have the money to go down). This is one of the reasons for the low quality of the programs that Guangdong participated in the Single Dance Competition. Last year, I watched the "English Song Contest" and found that the professional choreographers had far less material than the masses. In the past few years, the masses have developed their "Ying Ge" into something much more robust and powerful. Later, when we went to the Han areas in northern Guangdong to watch the "Lion Dance", the masses had also developed it, while the material we had on hand was still from the 1950s. It is said that the Shanwei area of the "money drum", there are also rich formations and movements, but we do not have a good inheritance, to dig, they are too busy to innovate, can not be created to add a few modern dance movements to the raw and live in the so-called innovation. This is not a good way. To be really innovative, we have to be honest, seriously, in the excavation, inheritance and organization of our folk dance work on the effort.

The article is a bit disorganized, as much as for the owner to learn reference.