A Preliminary Investigation Into The Functional Types Of Ancient Chinese Children Dances

In the historical development of ancient Chinese dance, children dances were not rare occurrences. Many dances representative of this kind of dancing activities - such as "Six Small Dances" (liu xiao wu), "Dance in Honor of the God of Agriculture" (ling xing dance), "Qu Zhe Zhi Dance", Vie Hong Dance", "Toy Horse Dance" (zhu ma wu), "Lion Dance" and so on - are clearly noticeable in extant historical records. These children dances were either present at court or circulating among the folk; they were used in education, or in religious rituals, or at banquets and for entertainment. As such, they punctuate the development of the ancient art of dancing and are a part of dance history which cannot be overlooked. Ancient children dancing activities or dancing phenomena are the topic discussed in this dissertation, whose aim consists in carrying out a historical analysis and systematization of children dances by adopting as a framework the type of function they displayed.This dissertation is divided into four chapters. The first to the third chapters carry out separately an investigation and description of the pedagogical, the religious and the entertaining functions of ancient children dances. The origins, evolution and significance of these different functions are accounted for mainly through a diachronic survey and a synchronic analysis of the historical development of children dances. The fourth chapter offers a comprehensive analysis and draws relevant conclusions. Its emphasis is placed on the study and description of the 'synchronic accommodation' and the 'synthetic interaction' among the pedagogical, religious and entertaining functions of dances, as well as their historical influence and actual effect.