Folk dance

Chinese national intangible cultural heritage Name: Dance

Applicant: Jiuzhaigou County, Sichuan Province

Item No.: 137

Project No.: III - 34

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional dance

Region: Sichuan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Jiuzhaigou County, Sichuan Province

Protection unit: Jiuzhaigou Cultural Center

Brief introduction of dance

Applicant: Jiuzhaigou County, Sichuan Province

Bi, the dialect of Baima people, means auspicious mask dance, commonly known as "Twelve phase dance" in Chinese. It originated from the primitive period when Baima people advocated "everything has spirit". It is a fusion of Diqiang culture and Tibetan culture, with a certain sacrificial nature. The characteristics of its animal like dance show that it should be one of the remains of ancient "hundred animals lead dance".

There are generally seven, nine or eleven people performing the dance. The first set of dance is called "Niu", which is usually performed in front of large-scale sacrificial activities and gods, including sacrificing ancestors and mountains; the second set is called "Ga", which is usually performed in Bali; the third set is called "Yang", which is a set of blessing dance, which is mostly used to visit villages, worship elders, and wish each other.

"Ariga", commonly known in Chinese as dancing imp, is a duet dance, representing a male and a female, in which the female is dressed as a male. The whole dance shows the scene of men's love and women's love in Baima.

The leading dancers wear the lion's head mask, which is known as the king of all animals and the king of the forest. The rest of the dancers wear animal masks, which are cow's head, tiger's head, dragon head, leopard's head, snake's head, chicken's head, two little ghosts and two big ghosts. Its dance is of great research value to the origin, development, evolution and the formation of dance rituals of the original animal dance.

The dance combination of Bi dance takes the spot step of circle dance and the tiptoe step of wearing flowers as the basic form of expression. The basic movement law of dance mainly includes the slow step, the squat step of lower leg, and the left and right turn. Combined with the rough and mysterious upper limb movements, it vividly shows the shape of the animals and embodies the unique aesthetic consciousness of Baima people.

The overall ceremony of the dance fully embodies the Baima people's worship of nature and conveys their wish to maintain the local peaceful social environment and ecological environment.