Dongba Dance steps

Naxi is an old ethnic minority living in Southeast China. The Naxi people love dancing and singing. They created and persevered a treasure of Chinese folk art --Dongba Dance.

The Dongba Dance of the Naxi people is very ancient and requires high skill. The ancient hieroglyphs discovered in the Lijiang area in 1980 are just like patterns of dances at that time. As the quality of these characters is close to photographs, the dancing characters are vivid as a direct painting of every dance. In the seminar of Dongba and Daba held in Lijiang in 1983, more than 60 Dongba and Daba old people performed the Dongba sorcerer's dance in a trance. Their dance steps basically tallied with the ancient hieroglyphDongbacharacters.

There are many categories in the Dongba Dance.The God Dance describes the gods' adventures to establish their sublime position; theInstrument Dancemanifests the power of ritual instruments and weapons; theAnimal Imitation Danceportrays various birds and animals; and theBattle Dancedefeats demons to protect the religious power, etc. These are representatives of the most common types of sorcerer's dance. These dances still exist today, with old Dongba people still performing according to the ancient dance steps.