What kind of opera action is sleeve?

The cuffs of traditional opera costumes in China are mostly decorated with a piece of white silk, which is the sleeve.

The sleeves are very distinctive. Many operas in the opera world are good at dancing with long sleeves, which is related to the image and status of the characters. For example, Hua Dan in Tsing Yi is a good girl, noble and shy, and is the heroine in the play, so her sleeves are long and her performance is beautiful. And some Hua Dan belong to that kind of cute girl, so the sleeves are shorter. Sleeves are auxiliary accessories of China traditional opera costumes. There is no strict regulation on its length, which depends on the height of the actors, different occupations and the needs of the plot.

Men are about a foot long (clowns are shorter), and women are about two feet long, at most three feet long. In some specific plays, Dan Xing's sleeves can reach more than two meters.

Basic movement of sleeves:

The basic movements of sleeves are: throwing, dropping, poking, hooking, picking, shaking, hitting, lifting, supporting and punching. Relying on these many basic skills, sleeves can combine various techniques to express rich emotions and shape various characters. Senior artists in ancient times, when they saw that long sleeves danced nimbly and beautifully, and "sleeves were as beautiful as Youlong", regarded sleeves as props for the beauty of dancing, instead of being a burden as most people imagined.

With the development of traditional Chinese opera in China, the opera-set technique has changed from simple to complex, and has become a pure performance and dance tool. By waving sleeves, actors can extend and enlarge the gestures of characters, express their rich thoughts and feelings, and reveal their various psychological activities.