The Peacock Dance -

The peacock dance is the most popular form of folk dance of the Dai ethnic group in Chinese culture. It is performed on the eve of the celebration of Dai New year and Buddhist festivals. The form of dance is also known as Galuayong, fanluoyong and gananyong. It is an important part of the Dias in

Chinese. The dance is based on three basic elements of the Dias: fairy tales, folk stories and the stories from the scriptures of Buddha. The dance is performed on cultural festivals by limited skill of dancers.

The peacock dance involves the basic movements of the body with hand gestures. The dance is an imitation of the movements of the peacock. The dance includes typical movements of the peacock like spreading its wings, running over the open space and hills, fluttering of the wings, drinking, playing in the water and flying freely in the open sky. The dance can be performed alone or in a group of one or two. The dance reaches its climax with the expression of the audience in the sound of "Shui Shui" and "Wu, Wu". The dance has a variety of appearances with a fixed posture of the imitation of the movements of peacock.

Different movements of the dance are different from one another. The movement of the eye is made by bringing the thumb and the index finger closer to each other. The remaining fingers are spread like a fan to make the exact shape of the eye. The hand of the peacock is imitated with the index finger bent and the thumb is kept slightly tucked. The remaining three fingers are spread in the shape of a fan.

The peacock dance can be classified into three types: the peahen, peachick and the peacock. The peahen dance is followed with slow and a light drumbeat. The dance is performed by male dancers with attractive and refined movements. The dancer moves the chest and the shoulder to display the delicate movements of the peacock. It also makes use of the knees. The movement of the knee is slowly raised and lowered imitating that of the peacock. The peachick dance composes the shivering movements with quick and deft drumbeat .The peacock dance is perform by bending the legs and twisting the body with full force. It is the most popular form of dance of all the form of peacock dances.

The peacock dance is performed in every folk-custom festival. It is one of the important folk dances of the Chinese culture. The peacock is associated with the symbol of happiness and luck in the Chinese culture. The beauty of the movements of the dance creates everlasting feelings to the people.