Anzhao and wedding dance of Tu Ethnic Group

“Anzhao” is called as “Qianjiaori” in the language of the Tu nationality, means “curve” or “rotation”, and is a kind of old folk song and dance form that spreads widest in the region of the Tu nationality. As the inserted sentences in the words of song often have “anzhao suoluoluo” and “anzhao—zhaoying zhaoya”, and so on, it got this name. 

Anzhao is a collective dance with no the accompaniment of instruments, and guided and accompanied by the melody and rhythms of songs. The dancers’ steps and postures are lithe and graceful. Its form is to let one person lead the dance and singing at the head. All the people closely follow him, accompany with songs and dances, and sing the inserted words in the songs. Its movements of dancing steps: firstly bend, then move forward, the both arms sway to the right at the same time of the first step, and sway to the left at the time of the second step. When the dancers stride out the third step, the left foot jumps highly, and they raise the both arms and rotate the body to the right for a circle, and a group of dance movements are finished. The dancers just circulate and repeat as this, go round the ground, dance and jump, and it does not come to an end until all the people enjoy themselves to the full. 

Generally, the words of “anzhao” are divided into passages, three sentences make up a passage, and three passages make up a group. There are the dance melodies of “Anzhao”, “Anzhao suoluoluo” and “Larelie”, etc. The rhythms of dances change according to the changes of songs. 

The people of the Tu nationality ardently love “anzhao”. On the festivals or the wedding days, people always come together to joyfully sing and commonly dance. 

Besides anzhao, wedding dance is a folk dance that is popular among the people of the Tu nationality. Generally, the wedding dance is mainly performed by two “nashijin” (persons who come to welcome the bride and are proficient in singing and dancing, and are assigned by the family of the bridegroom) who wear a shirt in white and brown, and other people accompany for them. The movements are different in different places.