Study On Extracting Action Elements From Taigu Yangge

Taigu Yangge, which named after its birthland, evolved from improvisational folk ditty to street performances combined with dances and songs through the Song and Yuan dynasties until the Ming dynasty. From the end of the Qing dynasty, although the singing retained the characteristics of folk songs, in fact, Taigu Yangge has evolved into a form of operas, so the component of 'dance' gradually weakened. Most contemporary scholars explored the history, social values of Taigu Yangge from the sociological point of view, researches focused on melody, rhythm, and script analysis, little care of dance in Taigu Yangge. In order to enhance the show quality and artistic expression of Taigu Yangge, our thesis focuses on the following three aspects:1,Through the analysis and comparison of the similarity and differences with drama dance and some other species in the aspects of stylization, life-orientation, virtual and void-solid combination, we came to a conclusion that:Taigu Yangge has the characteristics to extract action elements from it.2,Based on field trips and Xiong-yan Luo's "Dynamic Entry Theory", we summarized three main ways to extract the dance elements from Taigu Yangge:Various Factors, namely, because of various macro and micro influences during the formation and development of Taigu Yangge, accurately extracting dance elements should follow these factors.Vertical and Horizontal Exploration, that is, we should implement our research along vertical axis of time and horizontal axis of relationship between Taigu Yangge and other art forms, comprehensively explore the style of the action and its rhythm. Importance of Sublimation, that is, re-creation based on mastering a variety of historical informations and innovations of techniques.3,Researched on how to extract action elements from Taigu Yangger and produce its unique action characteristics.Based on the analysis of the roles' inner feelings, cold and windy natural environment, local people dress, customs, we took example of Dan (female roles) to extract the action elements of head, shoulders, hands and feet.By absorbing the action skills of the local martial arts-Xingyi Quan, we took the use of similar concepts of 'body','form' and 'spirit between Xingyi and Yangge, and fused them into a organic whole. Through repeated study the tune and rhythm of Taigu Yangge, we created the action elements to shape the roles' characters according the speed of dance music. By taking use of choreographer theory, we developed the original action elements by decomposition and evolved a new smooth style with its own momentum.By combining all methods mentioned above, we successfully quantized the dance action elements while keeping the real quality of Taigu Yangge. In a word, our research could supply full theoretical support and research methods for the formation of a distinctive style of dance in Taigu Yangge.