*Helou Dance

*Helou Dance

Nominating Unit: Yunan County, City of Yunfu

Yunfu Helou Dance is distributed in Liantan Township and its neighboring areas in Yunan County of western Guangdong Province, and is a very old form of dance. According to experts and scholars’investigation, the singing and dancing of the native Wuhu people in the Nanjiang River’s drainage area in East Han Dynasty was its original form. Therefore, it has a history of nearly 2000 years. During its long evolution, Helou Dance had been transmitted from Wuhu people to Yao people and to Han people due to changes in society and migration of the population. It also absorbed Taoist cultural elements, and gradually evolved into a traditional folk dance to celebrate harvest and pray for the safety of the locals. Moreover, it has been endowed with more primitive mythical connotations by local people. Legend has it that in ancient times, Nanjiang area was plagued with successive draughts and people were starved to death everywhere. Therefore, Shennong sent his great granddaughter, fairy Hehua, to rescue them. Hehua irrigated the rice paddy with her breast milk and therefore brought the starving farmers a great harvest. People thereafter would play the Helou Dance on the eve of harvest every year and offer sacrifice to the fairy’s statue in the Five God Temple in Liantan in thanksgiving to her.

Yunfu Helou Dance is normally played on the tenth night after the “Beginning of Winter” (a solar term of the lunar calendar). The venue is either in front of the village altar or temple, or in the rice paddy or by the river. The performance is normally conducted by 21 people, with one witch leading the dance, and 10 men and 10 women on the troupe. During the performance, a square-shaped straw tower in the perimeter made up of bamboo, wood, and straw is lit up. The dancers all wear masks and the troupe all wear a bamboo hat, black outfit, and straw shoes. The men all wear black trousers with a muffle and a bull horn tied around the waists. The women all wear black dresses, an embroidered cape, and a vine made ring. The witch wears a lotus hat, with a red-yellow cape. Under strong percussion music from gongs, drums, and trumpets, the witch raises a cane decorated with a bull skull in his left hand, and spins a bronze bell with color ribbons on his right hand, leading the male dancers who hold bamboo torches high in their hands, and the female dancers who hold the spikes of rice in their hands. The dancers would sing Helou song and dance toward four corners with body and hand swinging, and foot stepping movements, followed by crossing fire gate, and bowing to heaven and earth, two ceremonial routines. At last, with the lighting up of torches and fire gates, female dancers would hold spikes high up above their heads, indicating the celebration of harvest, and praying for the bless of god.(https://www.daowen.com)

Yunfu Helou Dance retains many symbols of ancient totems of Wuhu tribes toward animals, plants, fire, and their aesthetic taste, which can be seen in the bull totems, torches, rice spikes, fire gate crossing, and uniform black outfit used in the dance. The waist swinging, hand swinging, and foot stepping also bear basic characteristics of ancient dances. It is a living fossil of ancient rice culture, and has great historical values in studying the history of culture, ethnics, folk customs, religions, and southern China’s dancing.

However, Helou Dance is under strong impact of market economy and multi-cultures, worsened by the losses of main transmitters. Without strenuous excavating, studying, supporting, and protection, this ancient living fossil is in danger of extinction.

It was enlisted into the list of the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.