Raoping Cloth Horse Dance

31.Raoping Cloth Horse Dance

Nominating Unit: City of Chaozhou

The cloth horse dance from Raoping, Chaozhou was said to appear at the end of the Song and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. Back then, a pottery craftsman from Raozhou (now Shangrao City in Jiangxi province) came to Raoping to teach pottery making. Inspired by the story of Zhaogou, Emperor Gaozong in the Song Dynasty, who was said to have crossed a river on a mud horse, and the local practice of riding on a colored clay horse for admiration. In memory of Wen Tianxiang’s triumph in getting the first place in a national imperial examination, he composed folk dances concerning horses into one program, and showed it on ceremonies and celebrations, and Spring Festival and lantern festival around Jiucun Village of Cixiang Township (now Xinfeng Township of the City of Raoping), which later evolved into cloth horse dance and was introduced around many places in Raoping. Now it is mainly distributed around townships like Xinfeng, Huanggang, etc. of the county.

Raoping Cloth Horse Dance is a dance with big props. Cloth horse, the main prop, is 1.2 meters long, and 0.5 meters wide. The head is 0.45 meter long, and the neck is 0.47 meter tall. There is a half-circled hole which is 0.4 meter wide in the middle of the horse body so the dancer can get in and operate the horse. The utilities and cover of the horse are made with cloth of different colors. Even the dancers’ feet are covered and only the mimicked horse feet are shown to make it more real. Raoping Cloth Horse Dance is normally played with 9 or 11 horses in a formation, and the dance is mostly non-martial, such as “champion scholar touring the city”, “prime minister of six kingdoms”, etc. The steps of the dance are generally slow and steady, with its style gentle and elegant. Later during its transmission, the number of horses was added to 20. In a particular dance “Ci Lang Zhou”, even 24 horses are used in a grand scene to depict a majestic martial scenario. The movements of Cloth Horse Dance mainly include “whipping the lash and riding the horse”, “rotating and jumping”, “whipping and vertical jump”, “lashing and horse sprinting”, etc. The formations include “long snake”, “four gates”, “flower rope”, “butterfly and flower”, etc, with variations like “heaven and earth barrier”,“double eight-diagram”, “jumping moon”, “dual dragon swinging tail”, etc. Majestic scenes depicting the unifi cation of man and horse, horse herd stampede are rendered with the dancing movements and changeful formations.(https://www.daowen.com)

The music for Raoping Cloth Horse Dance has changed from early giant eight-key gongs and drums with trumpet from the Han Dynasty to Chaozhou giant gongs and drums with orchestra and conventional Chao songs. The band has 47 to 55 people, and the huge number is exactly one prominent feature of the band.

Raoping Cloth Horse Dance has a special historical origin and prominent dancing and local features. However, due to economic restrictions and the aging of the troupe, its transmission and development is experiencing diffi culties, and is in great need for help and protection.