Dong ethnic group Lusheng dance

Hunan
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"Lusheng Dance" is a traditional folk dance of the Dong ethnic group. It originated from the ritual dance of praying for a good harvest before sowing, thanking the gods for the gifts and worshiping ancestors after the harvest. The dance atmosphere is warm and cheerful. It has now become a self-entertainment and courtship dance called "Cai Tang" or "Cai Lusheng" for young men and women to participate in during the slack farming period from the rice harvest to the next spring sowing and various festive occasions. During every festival, adult unmarried young men and women of the Dong ethnic group will not miss the opportunity to "Cai Tang". Because many of these young men and women want to choose their sweethearts through the opportunity of collective dance. Moreover, the girls who participate in "Cai Tang" must not only wear shiny indigo dresses, but also wear silver ornaments on their heads, ears, necks, and arms to the best of their ability, because this is a silent language to show the economic status of their families to young men. In the past, due to the low economic level, if a family had more than one daughter who had reached adulthood at the same time, but had no silver ornaments, only the older daughters could participate in the "Cai Tang" activity, which often put the whole family in a difficult situation. The dance circle for "Cai Tang" was based on the village, and each dance circle was called "Yi Tang". During the festival, several "Lusheng Dance" halls from various villages with unique skills would gather together to show their grace. At that time, before dancing, each Lusheng hall would first erect a Lusheng column high in the center of the circle, hang the Lusheng team flag on the top of the column, and set up a "Mantong" performance around the Lusheng column with 46 people as the bass accompaniment for the "Cai Tang" dance. After everything was ready, the young men holding small Lushengs and the girls in gorgeous clothes holding colorful scarves or flower umbrellas and wearing silver ornaments stood in two circles inside and outside, and danced in a counterclockwise direction. The dance movements and rhythms were changed according to the tunes played by the Lusheng head. The main movements of women are rotation on the spot and swinging their arms up and down, forward and backward; while men play the reed pipe, they do large squatting, jumping, tapping and kicking movements. The whole dance is immersed in lyricism and delicacy, but also has a lot of elegance and liveliness. Moreover, whenever several dance teams dance at the same time, the "reed pipe music" comes and goes, and the girls dance gracefully, which really forms a sea of singing and dancing, which is very lively. What's more interesting is that at the end of "Stepping on the Hall" in Sanjiang County, Guangxi, sometimes a more intense and eye-catching entertainment activity "pulling the drum" similar to the tug-of-war game is added. All the dancing men and women are divided into two sides, pulling the long wooden drum tied with a thick rope, and the dance activity ends when one side wins.

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