Chinese Ribbon Dancing - 彩带舞蹈 / 彩帶舞蹈

Ever since I tried ribbon dancing for the first time at ALESN, I was fascinated by it. I always wanted try ribbon dancing, but I never had an opportunity during my childhood. In hindsight, I should have pursued everything I wanted to pursue before I entered college even with my tightly packed schedule because opportunities become scarce as we grow older. In my mini-research about ribbon dancing on Google, I found that:

1)       There is little information about the topic of ribbon dancing (at least in English) on Google

2)       Classes are usually offered to kids (kindergarten to 18yrs)

I will try to compile and organize all the basic information in combination with my one-class experience with Alyssa, our ALESN ribbon dance instructor, who I am grateful for teaching me all these moves. If you have any experience on this topic, please let me know if I’m missing anything or if any corrections need to be made.

Ribbon Dancing is known as  彩带舞蹈 / 彩帶舞蹈 (cǎi dài wǔ dǎo in Mandarin or coi2 daai2 mou5 dou6 in Cantonese). The literal meaning would be "colorful belt dance." Sometimes, people might shorten it to only  彩带舞 / 彩帶舞.

History:

I found an ehow website that sums up the general information about ribbon dancing. Apparently, a man named Hsiang Po stalled an assassination attempt on the Han dynasty king with his long, silk sleeve and saved the king's life. Then, ribbon dancing was created to celebrate the savior.

 http://www.ehow.com/about_6292248_history-chinese-ribbon-dance.html

http://www.ehow.com/about_6406156_history-chinese-red-ribbon-dance.html

Movement:

It’s important to stretch before doing this exercise. It may look easy while watching other people twirl a ribbon, but I have used almost all the arms and leg muscles in my body, which brought me lots of aches the following day. Beginners can work with one ribbon and alternate hands when tired. If the ribbon gets tied up in a knot while twirling (and it happens), a dancer should fix it right away or else the knotted ribbon will add weight while in motion.

The ribbon makes a whoosh noise if I swing it harder. It makes a beautiful sound while dancing as if we’re in a martial arts movie. It is especially beautiful to swoosh the ribbon at the beginning of a move if you plan to let the ribbon naturally fall.

The Walk

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/21207-chinese-ribbon-dance/

From what I researched, the term for walking in ribbon dancing is called “cloud steps” or "云步 / 雲步" (yún bù in Mandarin or wan4 bou6 in Cantonese.)  Dancers travel in mini-steps, one foot in front of the other in a heel-toe fashion. Traveling in cloud steps will work all the muscles in the back of the lower leg. Cloud steps give the audience an illusion that the dancers are walking on clouds. A dancer must use cloud steps to travel forward at all times unless the dancer is male. Male dancers may walk normally in wider steps in a manly fashion. When moving backwards, the female dancers should shuffle backwards in tiny steps. Men should just act manly at all times.

The Hand Gesture

www.nainichen.org/Tradition/DragonsTale.pdf  

When a dancer is not holding the ribbon rod, the free hand must always be in the "orchid hand" position known as 兰花手/  蘭花手 “lán huā shǒu” in Mandarin or “laan4 faa1sau2” in Cantonese. In the orchid position, the middle finger is bent lower than the rest of the fingers with the thumb almost touching the middle finger. This part creates the orchid. The rest of the other fingers act as petals, extending at different angles for a prettier pose. The hand or hands stay in this position whether the hand or hands is facing up, down, in or out. I believe this gesture is the same for all type of Chinese dances.

For the men, the hand gesture is easier. The free hand or hands is flat with the thumb bent at all times.

Ribbon Dancing Techniques/Moves:

These moves don’t have any special names (except for the advanced move) that I know of so I will just describe them one by one.

#1) Wave the ribbon up and down, making big or little movements as you travel.

#2) Start with the ribbon high (and according to Alyssa, I can accentuate the height by bending my knees and then stand on my tippy toes for a second to make it seem like the ribbon is flowing higher) and then make continuous left and right motions while moving the rod lower and lower at the same time. The width of the motion is up to the dancer.

#3) Like the second technique, the ribbon can be swung side-to-side behind the head and shoulders except there is no downwards motion. It looks like a flag is waving behind the dancer. The position starts with the elbow raised up and the hand behind and above the shoulders. This move is usually done while walking at the same time, creating a wavy effect behind the dancer.

#4) Move the whole arm in a circular motion at the side of your body. This will get tiring. You can also try the swoosh effect at the beginning of the move.

#5) Making figure-eights with your hands and arms in front of your body with each ribbon. This can also be done at the side of the body.

#6) Turning in place with the arms out. This move will create dizziness, especially when doing traveling turns. Spotting will be useful for this move. Spotting is when a dancer focuses on the same spot before and after the turn to lessen the dizziness.

#7) Modifying move #6, the turn starts with the arms up high and gradually the arms lower as they fall to the side while turning to make a beautiful ribbon descending effect. It looks like a slow jumping jack with the arms. Again, the turn can be done in place or while traveling.

#8) This move is another modification to a turn. Instead of keeping your arms steady while turning, try doing the wave while turning as mentioned in technique #1.

#9) The difficulty of this move is hard. I’m not sure if I remember correctly from Alyssa's class, but it’s called 风火轮 / 風火輪 “wind fire wheel” (feng1 huo3 lun2 in Mandarin or fung1fo2 leon4 in Cantonese). Coincidentally, this phrase is the same phrase for the “Hot Wheels” brand. It might be hard to explain but your arms are taking turns making circles either in front of you or behind you. Your arms are always rotating in opposite directions. The key is to twist your waist and upper-body left and right in order to complete the circle, swinging the ribbon to the other side to complete one half-circle at a time. The effect is actually really cool and is usually accomplished by guys with power, but this is a very advanced move. The legs should be apart and in place during this move.

In other words, if your left arm is swinging upwards in the circle while facing right in front of your body, by the time a half circle is done, your upper body will twist to face left with your right arm swinging upwards now in front of your body. Consequently, your left arm is swinging downwards in a circle.

A shorter order: Face Right, Left swing up, twist, Face Left, Right swing up.

When this move is done without ribbons and just arms, it looks like a kung-fu move.

Video:

I’ve included a video of Alyssa, our ribbon dancing instructor, performing her song at the end of class. She was already low on stamina, but decided to give us another grand performance. To those who are thinking of pursuing ribbon dancing, good luck and have fun!

Alyssa's after-class encore performance. She was a bit tired. You might notice that Alyssa uses a lot of the techniques that I mentioned in this post.

Alyssa trying to show us a move.

I filmed Alyssa's performance at a talent show. Bravo!