Ethnic customs-Dai peacock dance

Peacock dance is a representative folk dance of the Dai nationality. Many Dai villages have people who are good at dancing peacock dance. Thanks to the meticulous creation of folk artists, peacock dance with its own characteristics and various schools has been formed.

Peacock dance's content mostly shows peacocks flying down the mountain, walking in the forest, drinking water by the spring, chasing and playing. Drag your wings, spread your wings, shake your wings and get some water. Push branches, rest branches, open screens, fly and so on. Emotion is implicit, dance vocabulary is rich, and dance sculpture is full. Dance movements maintain a semi-squat posture with uniform vibration, and every joint of the body and arms is curved, forming a unique three-bend dance posture with more hand shapes and hand movements. The same dance posture and footwork, different hand shapes or hand movements have different aesthetic feeling and artistic conception. Peacock dance has strict procedures and requirements, standardized position map and footwork, and each movement is equipped with corresponding drum language.

Due to climate and natural conditions, there are many peacocks in Dai areas. Dai people have the habit of keeping peacocks for a long time. Dai people think that peacocks are beautiful, kind and intelligent, which is a symbol of good luck, and they have reverence for them. Dai people often regard peacocks as a symbol of national spirit, and express their wishes and ideals by dancing peacock dance, and sing praises to a better life.

After the founding of New China, peacock dance has made great progress and improvement. In the 1957 World Youth Student Festival, peacock dance, a female group dance, won the gold medal and peacock dance, a national dance, won the silver medal. Peacock dance, performed by Dai dancer Dao Meilan, enjoys a high reputation both inside and outside the province.