The Soul Dances Of Nuodance In Wanzai

Nuo, an ancient sacred activity in China, is one of the witchcrafts used by ancientChinese to expel ghosts and remove diseases. It is also an imaginative fruit of ancientpeople in epidemic prevention. After thousands of years’ development, Nuo still hasdeep influence on the Han nationality and minority from Heilongjiang Valley, YellowRiver Valley, Yangtze River Valley, Pearl Valley as well as other remote countryside.In recent years, with the great protection and promotion of local government, Nuo hasbeen understood by more and more people and attracting a number of experts andscholars, who are from foreign countries of Chinese Cultural Circle such as Japan andSouth Korean, to do researches and academic exchanges, which have achievedremarkable results.Nuo in Wanzai has existed for several hundreds of years. The custom of dancingNuo during the period of Spring Festival has a long history and is still popularnowadays. Wearing mysterious mask, dressed in colorful clothing, taking variousskulls and with the rhythm of the percussion, the artists dance Nuo in the steps ofprimitive simplicity. They are almost farmers, whose steps are simple and regularwithout any professional training, any skilled and fancy action, any gorgeous lightingand stage as well. In the rural field, generations of artists dance with their souls andsilently devote themselves to the World Non-material Cultural Heritage Career.Based on seeing this primitive and simple form of art many times, adopting the meansof video and recording and according to some scientific research methods likeobservation, investigation, inductive as well as comparative, this research will makesome analysis to the dance steps, actions and musical rhythms carried by Nuo inWanzai. Besides, it will study on their cultural depositions and the virtue of value,aiming at providing some theoretical basis and suggestions for the researches aboutNuo’s value of existence and development in the new era.