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Wood stool dance of the Miao ethnic group

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Description	The Miao's most important celebration takes place after their autumn harvest. Men play lusheng while women dressed in gaily decorated costumes perform a special dance using stools as props. During New Year celebrations, lusheng music can be heard and the stool dance seen everywhere in Miao villages. In fact, at every get-together the Miao people dance. Elderly members of the minority may be too old to swirl around with stools, but they eagerly watch the fun from the sidelines. Smiling kids wearing New Year outfits excitedly sway to the beat. Miao people usually wear short skirts when they do the stool dance, and there is an interesting story about this tradition. It is said that one day 300 years ago, an old Miao woman was walking home in a long skirt that was stained with excrement. Dressed in the dirty skirt, she stepped up to analtartooffer a sacrifice to the deity. The deity was offended by her garment and punished her by killing her with a lightning bolt. To ensure the future of the clan, Miao people later decided that their women should wear short skirts instead of long ones. Note : The text above is an excerpt from the article provided by the China Culture (http://en.chinaculture.org/)
Place	Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, China	File Size	62597 KB
Definition	5448 x 3920	File Format	tif
Copyright		-

LIST

PI00001030 Wood drum dance of the Miao ethnic group
Dances in Fanpai are normally accompanied by the lusheng (a musical instrument with multiple bamboo pipes), mangtong (a single-bamboo free reed wind instrument) and wooden drums. Among various dances, the Wooden Drum Dance is the most popular among both performers and audiences. Wooden Drum Dance shows are usually held in the village square. The dance opens with an intense, well-arranged and energetic drumbeat to which young men and women, wearing gorgeous Miao costumes, swing and sway. The dance features powerful, wild and primitive movements and an imposing style, reflecting the indomitable will and tenacious life force of the Miao people in this mountainous area. It is hard for people today to comprehend the fact that such a grand art form was created by Miao ancestors who were just ordinary farmers. Note : The text above is an excerpt from the article provided by the China Culture (http://en.chinaculture.org/)

China

DI00000066 CIRCLE DANCES OF THE MIAO ETHNIC GROUP THRIVING IN CHINA
The Miao people are a linguistically and culturally related ethnic group who settled in the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan, and Guangxi. While the Miao are disbursed over a large area and are subdivided into several different branches, they share a common heritage element called the circle dance. Often accompanied by a lusheng (a bamboo musical instrument), the circle dance is the most important dance and the most popular among all Miao branches. The wood drum dance is popular among the Fanpai Miao in Taijiang County, Guizhou province.

Wu Yunming Former Professor of the Dance Research Institute, China National Academy of Arts 2011