Recently, the "Spring Dai Dance Challenge" craze has been set off on the Internet, and the Dai dance music as the soundtrack has also become popular on social networks, the original is the Gengma Dai Wa Autonomous County Ethnic Song and Dance Troupe in Lincang City, Yunnan Province.
This is a young national culture task force. The average age of the team members is less than 20 years old, and some have joined for less than half a year; The team excavated, sorted out and innovatively arranged ancient intangible cultural heritage and other cultural elements to show "youthfulness" and realize innovative inheritance and development.
It is also an active national cultural task force. Launched 4 consecutive water splash dance songs, "out of the circle" in the industry; Visit folk artists and inheritors several times a year, race against time, and grasp first-hand information of traditional culture; Almost every two years, he won an award and became a well-known business card of Geng Ma.
Less than 5000,<> low-cost MVs made make the song and dance troupe successfully "out of the circle"
Listening to some of the "above" TikTok Divine Comedy, it actually comes from a traditional Dai ancient music.
But as for what it is called, opinions diverged, until someone @ out a netizen named Yanfeng. "This is our original Dai dance 'Nanshimi'." Yan Feng, also known as Wang Feng, served as the director of the Gengma County Cultural Center and the head of the county ethnic song and dance troupe. While answering questions from netizens, he also did not forget to promote the fourth Gengma splashing dance song "Up Gengma" that the team is preparing to launch, "The MV is about to be released, everyone will like it a lot."
Taking advantage of the popularity of Dai dance, Wang Feng immediately uploaded a shooting tidbits about the MV on his personal account, updating one every few days, which not only successfully "circled fans", but also whetted the appetite of netizens. "It's not enjoyable to watch!" "When will the full version come out?" ...... In the past few days, netizens have been looking forward to this year's splashing dance music.
On March 3, under the repeated urging of fans, "Up Gengma" was released a week ahead of schedule. The music at the beginning alone is very rhythmic, and the whole follows the bright and cheerful rhythm and style of the past; The cast is strong, in addition to all the members of the song and dance troupe, there are also many local people who appear; The content continues to maintain national characteristics, intangible cultural heritage elements such as red deer dance and elephant foot drum language take turns, scenes switch freely, and rich lens language shows the beautiful natural scenery of Gengma and the happy and beautiful life of the local people.
"Up means upward, and the launch of this work is to encourage everyone to maintain a positive and optimistic attitude." Wang Feng said.
"I want to go back to Songkran after reading it" "Attitude + Heart + Details = Good Work" ... Not long after its launch on the video account, the positive reviews came one after another. This made the producer of Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe, which had been preparing for more than half a year, usher in a "highlight moment" again.
Wang Feng introduced that the Songkran Festival is the most grand festival in the Dai region, and the reason why we want to create a Songkran dance music is to create a good festive atmosphere, and secondly, to promote the hometown, the unique humanistic customs and excellent traditional culture here.
In 2018, the first Gengma Songkran Dance was officially launched. In a catchy, lively and cheerful tone, this dance music skillfully displays the beauty of costumes, hometown beauty and local heavy national cultural accumulation, etc., making people want to come to Yunnan to celebrate the Songkran Festival. Not only that, the film not only highlights the soft image of Dai women, but also shows the strength and funny of men, showing the multi-faceted nature of Dai culture.
There is no gorgeous lighting and dance beauty, the scene is all over the field, and the masses make cameo appearances... This low-cost work, which costs less than 5000,3 yuan, received unexpected results as soon as it was released. Wang Feng said that at that time, the MV of more than 10 minutes was first released on the county-level WeChat platform, and the number of views exceeded <>,<> in less than a day. In addition to locals, ordinary people in other areas also actively forwarded it. Since then, Gengma Songkran has become a common expectation before and after the Songkran Festival.
"It's a success." Wang Feng said that the second part was launched in 2019, and there was still a good response. In 2020 and 2021, due to the impact of the epidemic, the water dance music was temporarily suspended. In 2022, they launched the third "Planting Sound", which means "calm the heart", calling on everyone to come to a "cloud splash" and wait for the next spring.
Three years later, with the optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention and control policies, the grand Songkran Festival will start again. The Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe is taking advantage of the trend to launch their new work, ready to set off a wave ahead of the Songkran festival. "The Splash Dance Music series has become a sentiment for us." Wang Feng said.
The elementary school music teacher changed careers and led this "semi-paralyzed group" to the national advanced
More than 10 years ago, what else did Wang Feng have in mind to plan?
In 2012, Wang Feng, who was originally a music teacher in primary school, was transferred to the county seat to take over the Gengma County National Song and Dance Troupe. At that time, most of the performance talents were lost, and there were only 3 men and 4 women left in the troupe, a total of 7 actors, basically in a semi-paralyzed state, and no new works have been released for many years, and the development of the song and dance troupe is in serious difficulties.
"To be honest, I wanted to leave at first. But out of my love for national culture since I was a child, I also want to make some serious achievements. After some psychological struggle, Wang Feng chose to stay. There were not enough people, so he tried to attract young people to join; With no new works, he led the team to the countryside to collect styles, learn from the inheritors, and began to dig and organize.
The common Dai dance of childhood, the red deer dance, faced the dilemma of death with the death of old artists one after another. After realizing this problem, Wang Feng and his team went to the countryside many times to collect style, became good friends with the inheritor Se Bing and others, often ate and lived together, and discussed how to bring it from the people to the stage.
In 2013, 6 programs created by the song and dance troupe participated in the first national folk song and dance music exhibition in Lincang City, among which "Red Deer Dance" and "Girl in the Heart" won the gold medal in one fell swoop, achieving a breakthrough of zero medals. In the same year, "Red Deer Dance" won the gold medal of the provincial national folk song and dance music exhibition, which broke the history since the founding of the troupe.
This boosted the morale of the once-sluggish Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe. But then due to the increase in the number of team members, the decrease in funds and other factors, some actors had to accept the invitation of commercial performances in some scenic spots and performed in Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong and other places, just to be able to support their families with some income. "It's understandable, after all, every actor has a family behind them." Wang Feng said.
In 2015, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the founding of Gengma County, Wang Feng, who was bent on tempering the team, took the initiative to ask for help and promised the county that he would definitely be able to come up with a decent program. "As a state-owned literary and art troupe, who will we not do?" To this end, the song and dance troupe quickly entered the state of "preparation", and through more than half a year of choreography and training, finally shined at the county festival with more than 20 wonderful programs.
In order to encourage and support the song and dance troupe to create literary and artistic products, Gengma County has set up a special fund of 2016 million yuan every year since 100, and also set up an art creation fund of 80,200 yuan. This year, with the increase of support, the special fund has been increased to <> million yuan. This makes the Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe more confident in its creation.
In order to improve the comprehensive quality of the actors, the song and dance troupe has successively invited a number of instructors from other places. Among them, Yang Zhongshou, who is in charge of technical skills training, is a senior literary and artistic worker in Lincang City, and he stayed for several years after being hired to Gengma. At first, some young people couldn't even do a side flip. It was under his guidance that the actors practiced their basic skills hard and all had their own housekeeping skills.
Ten years of work offstage, only for one minute on stage.
In 2018, "Dancing Knife Boy" won the "Caiyun Award", the highest award for literary art in Yunnan Province; In 2021, the first original national dance drama "Mengxiang Gengkan Dai Boxer" won the <>th Yunnan Province New Drama (Festival) Exhibition Outstanding Director Award and Outstanding Composition Two Individual Awards, and in the same year, the Gengma National Culture Task Force was also selected as the National Advanced Grassroots Literary and Art Troupe.
For a county-level literary and art troupe, this achievement is really not easy.
Interesting and meaningful, let traditional culture "rejuvenate"
Whether it is a series of water songs, or some award-winning masterpieces in recent years, "Geng Ma Production" can always make people's eyes shine, not only the shadow of intangible cultural heritage, but also the breath of the times. Wang Feng called this process "youthful" in traditional culture.
It's easy to say, but hard to do. The first step is to race against time to unearth and sort out these traditional cultures that are facing loss. "If you miss it, some old artists will be gone, and these good things may disappear with him." Wang Feng sighed.
The Kinnara dance, a quasi-bird dance, is a type of Dai folk dance that is spread in Southeast Asian countries and Mengding Dai areas. In order to learn the original Kinnaro dance, Wang Feng led the team to wade around the mountains to visit the old artist, and finally found an old man named Breshanlunon.
"Why didn't you come to study earlier, until I couldn't jump?" The old man's question made Wang Feng and his party feel ashamed and speechless. By the third time to ask for advice, the old man had already suffered a stroke in bed and could no longer dance his beloved Kinaro dance.
Sometimes, teams also need to break down secular notions that hinder cultural inheritance. When learning women's creative boxing, some old people bluntly said that "passing on men does not pass on women", and went to close the door several times. Wang Feng had to soften and hard, eat and live in the village for more than half a month, and finally impressed the old artist with his sincerity.
"Without in-depth practice and continuous practice, even if it is a smooth choreography in the later stage, dance is ultimately soulless." Wang Feng said that after mastering the essentials of the action, the actors also have to spend time eating thoroughly and integrating into the blood. Every year, they also go deep into the villages to carry out more than 70 performances to benefit the people, so that the "return of art" can be tested by the masses, and truly realize that national songs and dances come from the people and give back to the people.
How can these ancient traditional cultural elements show their unique charm in the new era? Wang Feng believes that it is necessary to be close to the lives of young people, make them interested and accept it, so that there will be soil for inheritance and development. The group of young actors around him has undoubtedly become his "research" object.
Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe currently has 32 performers, with an average age of less than 20 years old, who have little concept of intangible cultural heritage and traditional culture, but they all like modern music and short videos. This allowed Wang Feng to find a breakthrough point. Through innovative choreography, the performance skills of the red deer dance, butterfly dance and peacock dance from the folk have become short video works through integration and improvement, artistic transformation, and music with a strong sense of rhythm, and some have become "hits".
This made the young actors in the troupe immediately interested. Seeing other people's deer dancing well, 19-year-old Iwachi will secretly practice by himself; After having a sense of gain, 16-year-old Zai Suiwang likes to go to the village to perform for his father and fellow villagers more and more. Not only that, after brushing the short video of the song and dance troupe, some interested young people also took the initiative to join.
"First it's fun, then it's meaningful." Mei Wang, who joined the song and dance troupe in January this year, said.
After each work, the actors will actively upload it to their social accounts. Relying on the blessing of traditional culture, the Dai girl who loves to play short videos has nearly 2,<> fans and has become a "small Internet celebrity" in Gengma County. "Our work can be seen by more people, and that's a legacy."
Over the years, every young actor has shown a sense of confidence and calmness. This kind of change from the inside out was something Wang Feng did not expect. (Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Yan Yong, Hu Chao, Wang Anhaowei)