Today (February 5) is the fifth day of the first lunar month, commonly known as "breaking the fifth". On this day, many of the exquisite and taboos since entering the Chinese New Year's Eve (such as not moving scissors, not allowing needlework, etc.) will be lifted. Today's annual calendar leads everyone to appreciate a folk flower dance with local characteristics in Hebei - Luancheng raising the flower bar.
Raising the flower bar and the "Taihang Pearl" Cangyan Mountain has a deep relationship, Cangyan Mountain has the Three Emperors Gu Temple, the flower lifting bar is born from the folk sacrifice ceremony for the Three Emperors, named after the dancers carrying the Three Emperors' Statue "over the car", is the leader dance in the sacrificial dance team. Nowadays, the flower-raising bar has weakened the color of the sacrifice ceremony and gradually evolved into a folk group dance art that entertains the masses.
A pair of flower bars are carried by two people, the bars are made of bamboo processing, the lifted things are called "bar boxes", the lead bar holder holds a paddle-shaped bar card, and the performers have a handsome bar (rich bar) and ugly bar (poor bar). When lifting the bar, the bar can not be over the shoulders, can not use the handrail, the two people do the same direction, opposite, opposite and lift the performance, high to the top of the head, low to the hip tip, are the range of activity of the bar, the basic actions are "Swallow Water", "Tiger Tail", "Big Smear Sitting", etc., the performance routines are "Pearl Inverted Curtain", "Five Blessings and Longevity", "Thirteen Taibao", "Twenty-Eight Lodges" and so on. There is a smooth mouth: "Straight chest and hip waist as the axis, riding a horse squat crotch just with soft, shaking the arm with the bar trembling, the footsteps gently move the body with twisting, funny and lively amplitude, big driving it leading." "It not only describes the action image and characteristics of the flower-raising bar, but also explains its leading position in the sacrificial dance team. The whole performance of the flower bar is carried out under the command of the bar leader holding the token. The bar taker is required to be "fast in hand and eye, light in foot, and holding up tokens with the sound of the wind." The front legs are arched, the back legs are stretched, and the dance is done to shape (debut)".
There is no musical instrument accompaniment to the lifting bar, when the bar is danced, the bar box vibrates up and down, so that the iron ring on the bar box makes a clicking sound, which is just in tune with the dance, and this special accompaniment sound is integrated with the dance, which has a special interest.
The dance movement of the flower bar is rough and simple, and has a high ornamental value. During the performance, you can drive alone or multi-driving, and the bar is constantly sliding on the dancer's head, shoulders, back, buttocks and other parts, with standing, lying, squatting, lying and other churning movements. Dancers must have superb artistic skills to make the bar flip freely, and at the same time must accurately grasp the amplitude of the bar's up and down shaking, so that its frequency is in tune with other bar, and it is also necessary to strictly prevent the bar box from swinging left and right to avoid losing control.
Among the many folk dances in China, the flower-raising bar is unique for its simplicity and simplicity, but it is also skillful and ornamental. Excavating, rescuing and protecting the flower-raising bar has certain academic reference value for enriching and perfecting Chinese folk dance and studying other folk arts. (Edited by Zhao Shaofu)