Koreans have a kind of dance, with a piece of cloth on their heads and circles. What's it called?

Elephant hat dance is a representative dance form of Korean nationality, which is widely circulated in Wangqing County, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and deeply loved by Korean residents. On special days such as festivals and celebrations, people dance happily, shake colorful elephant hats, and the long streamers with smooth lines rotate like the wind, drawing dazzling and wonderful colorful rings around the dancers. Elephant hat dance has a long history and rich contents. It is a comprehensive folk art integrating music, dance and singing. Its dance is lively and elegant, with cheerful and comfortable rhythm, which fully embodies the joy and lively and generous national temperament of the Korean people in their work and life. It is a valuable cultural wealth created by the Korean people in the long-term work and life process. Elephant hat dance is the highest form of expression in agricultural dance, which shows the highest skills and excitement in the whole agricultural dance and exudes a strong national interest. It can be called a colorful chapter in agricultural dance. Elephant hat dance has high skill, high aesthetic value and appreciation, which gives people a visual sense of beauty. Dancers frequently shake their heads with the strength of their necks, so that the ribbon of the elephant hat they wear rotates like the wind and like a wheel, and a dazzling and wonderful colorful circle is drawn around the dancers. There are many actions of the elephant hat, such as "flat image", "left and right image", "standing image" and "shaking image".

[Edit this paragraph] Historical traceability

As a traditional form of entertainment, elephant hat dance has a long history. Legend has it that the ancient Koreans tied the elephant's hair to the top of the hat and swayed from side to side to drive away wild animals. It is also said that it originated from an expression of ancient Koreans shaking their bun to celebrate after hunting wild animals and other foods. In any case, the elephant hat dance has now developed into a comprehensive folk art integrating music, dance and singing, with equal skills and rich connotations. According to historical records, every year after the autumn harvest in 10, ancient Korea held a grand ceremony of "offering sacrifices to heaven", and people "ate and danced all night" to thank God for his gift and celebrate the harvest. Therefore, this kind of dance is also called "agricultural music dance", and the elephant hat dance is the highest form of expression, which shows the highest skill and wonderful degree in the whole "agricultural music dance".

[Edit this paragraph] Artistic features

classify

During the agricultural music and dance performances, each village sent its own powerful dance team to participate in local celebrations. At the front of the dance team, there is a command flag and an agricultural flag with "agriculture is the foundation of the world" as the leader, followed by a man who beat Xiao Hong as the commander in chief at the head of the team. Under his leadership, bands with Taiping Xiao, trumpet and various drum instruments and various disguised figures formed the ritual part of the dance team. Next, there will be a group of actors performing small encouragements, flat encouragements, long encouragements, fan dances, crane dances, hat dances, mask dances and pantomime, and the number of participants is unlimited. Elephant hat dance is an important form of agricultural music and dance, with various types and dance techniques, including long elephant hat, medium elephant hat, short elephant hat, line elephant hat, feather elephant hat, tail elephant hat and spark elephant hat. Its tail-swinging skills include swinging left and right, standing back and forth, single pendulum, double pendulum, even three pendulum, standing pendulum, squatting pendulum, kneeling pendulum, flapping and so on. The elephant's tail is several feet long and several feet long.

basic element

Shaking the elephant hat is the basic action of the elephant hat dance, and it is also a unique performance skill. During the performance, dancers frequently shake their heads with the strength of their necks, and their hat-throwing movements are also innovative, such as "flat", "left and right", "main" and "exposed". They can swing and jump at the same time, perform such difficult actions as "shaking the elephant to stride" and "bending over to shake the elephant", and drive the ribbon on the hat to form a dynamic ring with smooth lines.

The making of elephant hat

The special production technology of elephant hat determines the performance mode of elephant hat dance. At first, the elephant hat was made by sawing a gourd in half. A wooden stick is inserted at the bottom of it, and then a long window paper is tied with a cowhide rope and fixed on the wooden stick. At present, there are many kinds of hats worn by dancers, most of which are made of hard plastic, and their ribbons have also evolved into cellophane, which can be divided into long elephant hats, medium elephant hats, short elephant hats, line elephant hats, feather elephant hats and spark elephant hats due to different characteristics. The long, medium and short elephant hats are named after the different lengths of ribbons. The short one is only 1 meter, and the old one is 12 meter. At present, the longest is 28 meters. Others are named after different materials and decorations of ribbons and hats. For example, the feathered elephant hat is named after tying 10 egret feathers together and tying them on the tip of the elephant hat to form a swaying belt; Spark elephant hat is tied with dozens of fireflies on a long belt, which looks like fireflies flying up and down during the performance, and it is extremely dazzling.

Performance steps

Elephant hat dance is a group performance, which is very particular and divided into certain steps and procedures. First, the music begins. First of all, swing the short elephant hat, match the tambourine and do simple dance movements. Then put on an elephant hat, with a long drum, and do body movements such as drilling, rotating and turning; Finally, one to three people waved the elephant hat and made difficult movements such as jumping paper, going up the steps and circling people, so that the dance reached its climax. In the dance, tambourines, long drums, side drums, gongs, small gold, flutes, piccolo and Korean suona are always accompanied. The elephant hat dance is lively and elegant, with a cheerful and comfortable rhythm, which fully embodies the spiritual outlook and national temperament of the Korean people in their work and is a precious wealth created by the Korean people in their long-term life.

[Edit this paragraph] The present situation and inheritance of elephant hat dance

Elephant hat dance is widely circulated in Wangqing County, Jilin Province. During festivals, weddings, leisure time and competitions, men, women and children get together to perform. As the elephant hat dance is one of the unique representative dance forms of the Korean nationality, it is very popular with people because of its superb skills. According to the survey, as early as 1949, Wangqing County set up an elephant hat dance performance team, which was handed down by Professor Liang, the first generation of elephant hat dance. Every festival, wedding, leisure and competitive activities, men, women and children get together and perform heartily. 1954 As a representative mass culture and art of the Korean people, agricultural music dance was put on the stage in the form of elephant hat dance through the efforts of many performers and presented to the world with a brand-new look. Since the reform and opening up, Wangqing County has invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the protection and development of elephant hat dance, which has enabled the elephant hat dance, a traditional Korean folk dance performance form, to be continued and passed down. Wangqing Elephant Hat Dance Performance Team has participated in national performance competitions and provincial and state competitions for many times, and its unique national cultural characteristics and beautiful dance have won praise from domestic and foreign audiences. From 65438 to 0986, in the "First National Folk Music and Dance Competition" in Beijing, the hat dance "Joy" won the "Grand Prize"; From 65438 to 0987, Baicaogou Town, Wangqing County held the "First Farmers' Culture Week", during which thousands of dance teams performed a large elephant hat dance, which caused a great sensation. At present, the production of "elephant hat" in Wangqing county has reached the leading level, and the ribbon length of elephant hat has reached 28 meters, which is the longest elephant hat ribbon at present. Baicaogou Town was named "the hometown of elephant hat dance" by Yanbian Cultural Bureau. Elephant hat dance is one of the most distinctive dances of Korean nationality, which has developed to the sixth generation. Its dance form has also developed from simple outdoor entertainment to professional literary and art groups, and won many national and provincial awards. However, its development is facing a difficult situation. With the development of the times, traditional culture has been impacted, and the inheritance and protection of elephant hat dance are also facing great difficulties. On the one hand, professional dance talents with high attainments are aging, and the backbone talents are lost; On the other hand, with the development of the times, traditional culture has been impacted, few people concentrate on practicing "elephant hat dance", and there are fewer and fewer professionals. In order to protect and inherit this precious national art, Wangqing County now holds an elephant hat dance training class every year to cultivate reserve talents of elephant hat dance, and also extensively carries out elephant hat dance performances to popularize and popularize elephant hat dance. The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20th, 2006, the Elephant Hat Dance was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.