In the design of costume props, the heroines in the Song Dynasty dance team usually wore crowns, but now the "wax flower" of the flower drum lamp still retains this decoration, which is unique in the traditional folk songs and dances of the Han nationality in China. The handle of Bamboo Pole is made of bamboo, painted with vermicelli, wrapped with a vine, painted with wax at the lower end and carved with wood at the upper end. Hundreds of thin bamboos are inserted into wood, vermicelli is painted with red tows, and the bamboo ends are one inch each, wrapped in gold paper and wearing crystal beads. " (Song "Music Learning Norms"). This is similar to the shape and practice of the umbrella in the hand of the "umbrella handle" of the flower drum lamp.
Judging from the formation changes and dance skills, the folk group dances in the Song Dynasty ranged from a dozen people to dozens of people. The changes of dance formation include "hooking up", "letting go", "eye of the sea", zigzag and square formation (posture includes standing, changing, crossing and dancing in a circle), which is equivalent to "Luo Licheng" in today's Flower Drum Lantern. Some dance movements in the Song Dynasty, such as Wailuocheng, Four Horses Running to the Trough, Two Dragons Playing with Beads, and Yuanyang Array, borrowed and blended martial arts and acrobatics, such as today's martial arts movements such as "beating the tiger" and "squatting the crotch", as well as acrobatics such as "stacking arhats" and "jumping the tiger", all of which were well preserved in the flower drum lanterns.
There are many roles of Flower Drum Lantern, and the division of labor is also very fine. The main actors are "Lahua" (also known as "Orchid") and "Drum Shelf". Female characters are generally called "wax flowers" and are the core members of the performance; Male characters are generally called "drum shelves".
The artists of the ancient painting lantern team are generally composed of gongs and drums, actors, lamp holders and lamp assholes. The performance of Flower Drum Lantern is divided into opening, upper drum, middle drum, venue drum, duet and small play in the backcourt.
Dance is the main component of Huagu Lantern, including "big flower field", "small flower field" and "drumming". The emotional dance of the collective performance of "Big Flower Field"; "Little Flower Field" is a small dance drama with characters and plots improvised by two or three people, namely "Drum Shelf" and "Flower Pull", and it is the core part of the flower drum lantern dance. "Pangu" is a combination of dance, martial arts and skill performance, with plastic arts characteristics.
The singing part is collectively called "Lantern Song", and most of them are duets or solos by "Drum Shelf" and "Tile Flower" between "Big Flower Field" and "Little Flower Field", which can be long or short and have strong improvisation.
Flower-drum lantern gongs and drums are an extremely important part of flower-drum lantern, including scene gongs and drums and light-field gongs and drums, which have the characteristics of passionate emotion, changeable rhythm, vivid compactness and strong appeal. Scene gongs and drums can exist independently and play alone; The gongs and drums in the light field are integrated with the dance of flower drum lanterns and the performance of small plays, which plays the role of accompaniment and rendering emotions.