Drum Dance

Ⅲ-42Traditional DanceQinshui, ShanxiBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Tuwo Old Flower Drum has been transmitted in Tuwo Village, Qinshui County for more than two hundred years. Its roles are built around the old clown, the young clown, the flower lass, the old man, the old woman, the waist-drum player, the message boy and the drum carrier, and the clown role serves as the hub of the whole troupe. The sung words are composed and sung on the spot by the performers, so the content carried by the same tune differs from one year to another, and the local colouring of the lyrics is renewed accordingly.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Tuwo Old Flower Drum is a traditional dance transmitted in Tuwo Village, Qinshui County, said to have more than two hundred years of history. The Tuwo Old Flower Drum is a dance-performance form that integrates three parts — striking the drum, singing and dancing. Its principal roles are the old clown, the young clown, the flower lass, the old man, the old woman, the waist-drum player, the message boy and the drum carrier. The most important role in the Tuwo Old Flower Drum is the clown, whose dancing has a character of its own: while dancing, the performer bites a ring held fixed on the small drum, holds soft drumsticks in both hands and strikes up and down, and moves forward on both feet in the "danhe tanbu" (red-crane hopping step) as though gliding like a crane; while singing, the performer holds the drum in the hands and takes it back into the mouth once the song is finished. The Tuwo Old Flower Drum has a rich repertoire of formations, including shuanglong chushui (twin dragons emerging from the water), san zhan deng (three lanterns), shier liangou (twelve linked hooks), shuanglong baiwei (twin dragons swaying their tails), shuangchahua (double flower insertion), jiudaowan (nine bends), hehuazhuan (lotus turn), danmenhulu (single gourd) and zaohuaxing (jujube shape), as well as shuangfentou (splitting into two fronts). The main step of the dance is the "ququ bu", a whole-foot step that brushes the ground as the dancer advances; while dancing, the body twists to the left and right like a willow swaying in the wind, gentle and graceful.

The mouth ring and the crane step

The clown holds a ring fixed to the small drum in his teeth, striking with soft sticks and stepping like a crane, taking the drum in hand only to sing.

Processional and entrance scores

Two kinds of score exist, the drum score for processional and entrance playing, and the tune score with old and new airs for improvised lyrics.

Field patterns

Its rich formations include two dragons emerging, three lanterns, twelve linked hooks, the dragon's tail sweep, nine bends and the turning lotus.

The winding step

Its principal step drags the whole foot along the ground while the body twists left and right, soft as a willow in the wind.

Qi Xuede's added drummers

Born in 1948, Qi Xuede played many roles, added the waist drummer to the traditional cast, reformed the costumes and has trained more than twenty pupils.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Tuwo Old Flower Drum has two kinds of musical notation. One is dance notation (zouchang luogu, the gong-and-drum accompaniment for moving on stage), divided into zouchang pu (moving notation) and dengchang pu (entrance notation); the other is tune notation (huagu diao, the flower-drum tune), divided into "lao diao" (old tune) and "xin diao" (new tune), with lyrics improvised and sung on the spot by the performers.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Qi Xuede (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in May 1948, native of Qinshui County, Shanxi Province. He has loved song and dance since childhood, and at the age of 9 played the part of the message boy in an Old Flower Drum arts performance. From then on he took part every year, and in rehearsal and study he listened attentively to the instruction of older performers such as Chen Wenming and Li Shuixing. He has played the young clown, the old clown and the flower lass, and is especially skilled in movements such as shuafoshi (throwing the Buddha posture), paomashi (galloping-horse posture) and zhu anfushi (turning the Buddha posture). He added the waist-drum player to the traditional role lineup, reformed the costumes of the roles, and added character movements, making the performance techniques and staging of the Old Flower Drum richer. Representative inheritor of the national-level intangible cultural heritage project Drum Dance (Tuwo Old Flower Drum), fifth national batch. Over the decades he has organized more than ninety rounds of rehearsal for the Tuwo Old Flower Drum, each time giving instruction and guidance in rehearsal for more than ten days, and has passed on everything he has learned to later generations without reservation, training more than twenty apprentices in total. He has also regularly carried out intangible-heritage-into-schools activities, so that the art of the Tuwo Old Flower Drum receives effective protection and transmission.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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