Yangko and donkey running in eastern Hebei
Yangko in eastern Hebei is widely spread in Tangshan, Hebei Province. According to China Ancient Dance Talk (written by Wang Kefen), "Yangko evolved from the ancient village of Dengaku", and its source is the life of ancient working people.
Diyoko, who performs on foot on the ground, is not limited by performance occasions and props. It is relatively flexible and easy to learn and implement. It is a folk dance that combines self-entertainment and performance, and has a broad mass base. Traditional activities are basically divided into cross-street yangko and field yangko. Yangko across the street, walking the streets and performing along the way. Its main features are: unified rhythm and movements, different performances, simple jumping and twisting while walking. When you meet a square or a cross street, you will open the scene, make a big twist, sometimes sing a paragraph for a while, and then perform a "small dance program" with a story. The main features are: typical personality, stretching and bodybuilding, and flexible picture.
In the traditional yangko performance form, there are two figures dressed as Wu Sheng (some dressed as He Lu) in front, dancing with Hua Gun, playing the field, followed by teenagers carrying flower baskets and Buddha dust, as well as excelsior, fisherman, woodcutter, scholar and other roles. In business, there are "girls" (girls or kannika nimtragol), ugly (humorous characters) and? (middle-aged or elderly women), childe (elegant scholar). The performance is characterized by jumping up and down, twisting shoulders and waist, and swinging hands, just like a phoenix swinging willows. According to the character's personality, the Tao in his hand has a colorful fan, a silk flower, a round fan, a drum, a wooden stick, a tobacco pouch and so on. The basic movements of the hand are mainly eight-character flowers, up and down, left and right, and swaying flowers back and forth. Like pairs of colorful butterflies dancing among flowers, they are lyrical, beautiful and elegant, fiery, pungent, enthusiastic and cheerful, full of humor and wit. The accompaniment is mainly melodious suona, and the small and medium-sized hairpin is percussion. Most of them are used to playing trumpet music such as full house, dialogue and Liu Qingniang, which is easy to show an optimistic, cheerful, happy and festive holiday atmosphere.
The dance movements of Niu, Ugly ((Wen Chou, Wu Ugly) and Gongzi in Diyangzi are very delicate and vivid. They can create artistic images of different characters in Diyangzi's "small field" and "small out" and are good at expressing couples' dances, threesome dances and small dance dramas with storylines. Zhou, a member of the Chinese Dancers Association, director of the Hebei Branch of the Chinese Dancers Association and a famous yangko performer, collaborated with Zhou Guozhen and Zhang Qian to create a folk dance "Running Donkey" based on "Wang Xiao Catch the Foot" and "Silly Column Meets Daughter-in-law". The main dance vocabulary is the selection of the material of Diyangzi. This dance with national style and local characteristics won the excellent program award when it participated in the first national folk music and dance performance on 1953. Later, he was taken to Bucharest by China Youth Art Troupe to attend the 4th World Youth Students' Peace and Friendship Festival, and won the second prize in the international dance competition.
In addition, professional and amateur dancers in Tangshan, Qinhuangdao and Changli have created many new dance programs based on the local yangko, such as Marrying a son-in-law, Touching the Elephant by the Blind, Night of Mid-Autumn Festival, Butterfly and Snatching Parents. These dances have been popularized in the whole province and are deeply loved by the masses.