The top bowl dance is an exclusive folk dance that is spread in Tangzhuang Village, Flood Town, Minle County, Gansu Province. The top bowl dance is a group dance that integrates ethnic, folk, technical and appreciative nature, and is a fine piece in folk dance art.
The dancer holds a porcelain bowl on his head, a bamboo strip in his mouth, holds a plate and a chopstick in each hand, and a copper bell and red spike is tied to each end of the chopsticks, and when dancing, he knocks the "mouth strip" to hit the porcelain bowl on his head, and at the same time, he hits the dish with chopsticks to perform various dance movements, but the bowl is always firmly "sitting" on the dancer's head. The dancers are based on the traditional Yangge cross step, and then the cross-use of "three steps and one lift", "shuttle step", "cushion step", "oblique back point step" and "cloud step" make the scene more colorful and the local characteristics of the dance more intense.
The Tangzhuang Top Bowl Dance combines dance and acrobatics, with graceful movements, skillful skills, free to get up and lie down, and stretch generously. Dancers walk, jump, stand, kneel, climb, roll, flip and many other difficult movements practice various shapes, sometimes running back and forth, spinning like a gyro twisting line, shaking arms like purple swallows flying high, waving sleeves like heavenly women scattering flowers, and like Chang'e running to the moon when open. According to the "Minle County Record", the Tangzhuang Top Bowl Dance was first circulated by the troops of the Liang Junmen garrison of Minle Tangzhuang during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Later, the inheritor Tang Xian gradually perfected the top bowl dance, and taught many people in the village, and after liberation, the top bowl dance has become mature, and in addition to Tangzhuang Village, the people in neighboring villages will also dance. In the 50s of the twentieth century, villagers Tang Zhiming, Tang Lihao, Tang Kefang, Tang Lishun and others went to the provincial capital of Lanzhou to perform, and the places they went were well received. After the "Cultural Revolution", the top bowl dance became popular again, especially after the 90s of the twentieth century, the cultural department has excavated and innovated several times, and has formed folk dances with local characteristics.
Author: Han Jing Li Jie
Source: Minle County Cultural Center
Editor: Cai Yilin
Second instance: Zhao Xiaokang
Final judge: Zhang Keliang
Editor-in-chief: Lai Rong