Sanzao Crane Dance

Sanzao Crane Dance

Nominating Unit: City of Zhuhai

Sanzao Crane Dance is mainly distributed around Haicheng and Zhongxin villages in Sanzao Township, City of Zhuhai. It is told that the dance was created from mimicking white cranes living on Sanzao Island on the Lingdingyang Sea by descendents of people exiled onto the island in the South Song Dynasty. It has a history of over 700 years till now.

The prop used in Sanzao Crane Dance is a white crane. The crane head is carved out of wood, and its body is knitted with bamboo strips. Its feathers used to be made with bamboo leaves, but now with white paper. The crane’s neck is made by gauze with a thin bamboo pole inside and the dancer can operate the crane neck with it. There are no wings or feet, because the crane model does not pursue one hundred percent similarity, but similarity with imagination. The whole prop is nicknamed “crane suit” by the locals.(https://www.daowen.com)

There are five people on the troupe: one plays the crane, one sings the crane song, and three play percussion music to be the accompaniment. During the performance, a dancer would wear the crane suit, and mimicking different kinds of gestures and movements of the crane, from wakening up, combing feather, eating, water treading, playing, and finally flying in the sky. The rendering is elegant, graceful, agile, and vivid. The dance is accompanied by a crane song throughout. The first line of lyrics must start with “white crane”, but the content of the lyrics may not be associated with the dancing. The singer can sing nonstop to express his or her own feelings and wishes, as long as he or she concludes the singing with a designated line when the dancing ends. This shows a unique dual-structured style of singing and dancing. The musical instruments used in the accompaniment include drums, gongs, and cymbals. The rhythms change with the dance.

The locals uniformly hold the white crane dancing and singing sometime from the 1st of January on lunar calendar to the Lantern Festival as a celebration for the new year. During this time, the juniors in the village must offer a red poster to the seniors in the village informing the arrival of saint crane and wishing for the health and longevity of the elderly. It fully reveals the symbolic meanings of the crane dance.

Due to the changes in economy and the evolution of cultural ecosystem, apart from some elderly people such as Xu Juxing and Chen Fuyan who can still perform the crane dance and singing, few young people possess the skills. Its transmission is in a predicament. Strengthened rescue and protection work must be carried out immediately.