The Yanhe Dance is a kind of folk dance of Yi ethnic group. Dancers assisted with tobacco cases when they dance, and it was spread in the Yi areas such as County Gejiu, County Shipin, County Jianshui and so on. It could be a dance for two persons, for three persons or even for a group. The beats of the dance are bright, dancers need to use his or her head, wrist, feet and every part of his or her body when they dance, and there are many complex motions in dancing which make it very exciting. The Yi people used to love it very much, not just as audiences but also as dancers. The Yanhe Dance used to gain its popularity, but it had been declined in recent years for the change of circumstances and the traditional customs of having the Yi traditional tobacco had disappeared. There were routines about movement over 220 kinds when the Yanhe Dance is flourishing, which had been gathered and systemized of only 117 kinds until today.

The Yanhe Dance is of characteristic feature. It is said, the Yi people dressed in hide to mix in beasts when they went hunting. The movement to imitate beasts evolved into a kind of dancing. It is also said, this kind of dancing wasn’t assisted with tobacco case at first, but it led to the group dance out of order, so dancers used the tobacco case to play the beats of the dancing, after years and generations, it developed into the Yanhe Dance which we see nowadays.

The Yanhe Dance is a kind of valuable part of the Yi ethnic group’s cultural heritages which reflects the aesthetics and philosophy of the Yi people. It proves the outstanding creativity of the Yi people and enriches the spiritual life of people of all ethnic groups. It needs great efforts to curb the tendency that such dance is disappearing.

Source: Yunnan Tobacco Information Network

Time: 2016-11-09