The Lusheng Dance in Dragon-Like Long Gown of County Guiding is a unique kind of dance accompany with Lusheng (a reed-pipe wind instrument), which has a history of over thousand years. It has been called “Oriental Tango” by domestic and overseas artists.

It is said that the Lusheng Dance in Dragon-Like Long Gown once was a dance which played when young people courts. Young men of the Miao ethnic group played as dragons, danced and played Lusheng in front of young ladies to impressed them. It evolved into a sacrificial ceremony then. The Lusheng Dance is a form of praying in traditional festivals and ceremonies today, and a manifestation of the Dragon-worship. The Miao ethnic group have worshiped Dragons since ancient times, they believe Dragons can bless a golden harvest and a good fortune.

There are three parts of such Lusheng Dance, Miao people dress in black long gowns, dragon-like masks with feathers, red waistbands decorated with silverworks, playing Lusheng and dancing in the same time. The dancing is not limited by place and number of people. With motions like walking, jumping, spinning, dancers show the bold and unconstrained beauty of power. Dancers strive to the balance and the harmony between the Lusheng playing and dance movements, to express the figure, the posture, and the strength of the Dragon, it is exaggerative but doesn’t lose the shape, no matter how many dancers participate in.

In recent years, the Lusheng dance has been staged frequently, and awarded in lots of matches, expressed the attraction and value of the culture of Miao ethnic group. It has also been set as a required course into the curriculum of local primary schools, as the most recently development.

Source: Guizhou Daily  

Date: 2016-11-01