Chinese Folk Dance Research

Contra Dance studied in this dissertation is a form of dance by pairs of dancers, which involves social function and self-entertainment.In the west, Contra Dance originated in the folk, entered royal courts, and then developed in urban dance halls. In China, however, contra folk dance is a cultural phenomenon which takes an important position in dance history, though it has not been practiced and improved as it has in western courtesy and industrialization. When it came to New Stone Age, communal marriage as means of multiply declined and private individual economic system emerged. Consequently romance with delicacy and devotion came into the social life associated with more and more secret communication, therefore the rudiment of contra dance came into existence.With the growing of human cultures, Chinese folk Contra Dance has been developing continuously, helping confide affection between dancers in a peculiar way. This dissertation is intended to summarize and research into Chinese folk Contra Dance, and reflect on the development and construction of it. The whole essay is composed of four parts: 1) introduction to the general condition of China folk contra dance with respect to distribution and classification; 2) discussion on characteristics in terms of its form, traits of body position and contact between dancers, and the music accompanying; 3) further research on the origin and changes of Chinese folk contra dance from the starting point of its history; 4) consideration for construction of new type of urban contra dance in times of China urbanism and human language globalization, with reference to the rules of evolvement of western urban dance halls.