One is for sacrifice. "Li Zhou Emperor Guan" records: "The tasks of dancers include: teaching soldiers to dance and leading people to dance when offering sacrifices to mountains and rivers; Teach dance and lead people to dance when offering sacrifices to the country; Teach badminton dance and lead people to dance when offering sacrifices to the quartet; Teach the emperor to dance and lead people to dance and pray for rain during drought. " "Wu dancer, full feather. Feather dancer, feather analysis. Emperor dancers have feathers on their heads and jade feathers on their clothes. "
The second is used for witchcraft. Li Zhou Di Guan records: "Si Wu is in charge of witches. If there is a drought in China, he will lead witches to dance and pray for rain. In addition, when offering sacrifices to the god of all things, the soldiers danced.
The third is to drive away the epidemic.
The fourth is for education. "Li Zhou Emperor Guan" records: "Musicians are in charge of the administration of Chinese studies and educate the children of nobles to learn small dances (referring to the dances they learned when they were young). Small dances include martial arts dance, feather dance, emperor dance, Luo dance, dry dance and human dance. By learning music and dance, these aristocratic children can dance Yunmen, Xianchi, Dashao, Daxia, Daxie and Dawu. Harmony in melody and dance can be used to worship gods, ghosts and territories, so that the country is harmonious, the people are harmonious, the guests are appeased, people from afar are obedient and everything is prosperous.
The fifth one is for feasting. The dances performed at that time included bow and arrow dancing. On the basis of music and dance in Shang Dynasty, the court dance in Western Zhou Dynasty developed into etiquette under the concept of "matching heaven with virtue", but weakened its entertainment function. The main body of dance is elegant music and dance, which is characterized by solemnity and loftiness. For example, when Emperor Zhou offered sacrifices on the winter solstice and summer solstice, and when his son went to the altar to pray on that day, the dance team would offer "Cloud Gate" and "Fairy Pool". The dancers' movements are moderate, orderly and elegant, highlighting the characteristics of solemnity, sacredness and moderation.