Study On The Battle-Drum Dance Morphology Of Bai Nationality In Sangzhi

Battle-drum dance is a particular folk dance of Bai nationality in Sangzhi district, which has a history of more than700years. Because of the unique artistic fascination, battle-drum dance has been honored as the "three miracles" of the art of folk dance in western Hunan together with waving dance of Tujia nationality and monkey-drum dance of Miao nationality. Battle-drum dance has long historical origin and profound cultural foundation. It was included in national intangible cultural heritage lists in2011. Based on the primary materials obtained by field study as well as the graphics and text information by looking up related articles, this paper analyzes the morphology, cultural connotation and cultural function of battle-drum dance by using method of dance morphology feature extraction and comparative analysis, under the comprehensive perspective of cultural anthropology, folklore, ethnology and dancology. Meanwhile, opinions about the inheritance and development of battle-drum dance have been presented by the author.In this paper, the main structure is divided into three parts:introduction, text, and conclusion. The introduction mainly introduces research significance, research status of the topic as well as the object of study and approach to use in this paper. The text has been divided into4chapters. Chapter1introduces the living environment, historical origin, development and distribution. The relationship between dance and folklore is exposited in this chapter by reality of folk activity "Youshen". Chapter2mainly studies the ontology characteristic of battle-drum dance by comparing the battle-drum dance between Furongqiao district and Maidiping district. Firstly, the movement of battle-drum dance has been classified and the characteristic of dance movement has been concluded by morphology analysis. Secondly, the music, formation, dramatis props and clothing of battle-drum dance have been analyzed in detail. Thirdly, basing the preceding analysis, the aesthetic characteristics of battle-drum dance have been summarized. Chapter3analyzes the cultural connotation and cultural function of battle-drum dance based on the first two chapters. On the one hand, by considering the characteristic of multi-cultural integration of battle-drum dance, the relationship between battle-drum dance and god culture of Bai nationality and the national spirit reflected in battle-drum dance, the cultural connotation has been obtained. On the other hand, this chapter explores cultural function carried by battle-drum dance during hundreds of years of development, which includes religious worships function, ethnic identity and communication function, cultural inheritance and education function, emotional catharsis and entertainment fitness function. Chapter4presents the author’s thought about the inheritance and protection as well as innovative development of battle-drum dance. Efforts in order to protect and inherit battle-drum dance and difficulties encountered at present in Sangzhi district have been introduced. Based on the current situation, this chapter proposes innovative ideas for the inheritance and development of battle-drum dance by utilizing the development experience of other outstanding folk art. Meanwhile, simple creative practice has been conducted. Finally, the main content of this paper has been summarized in the conclusion part.