The Drum Dance and the Repa Dance
From the Lhoka region comes a drum dance known as the drop. Danced with swift, abrupt movements it calls for highly skilled performance. Dancers in striped costumes stamp backwards and forwards in rhythm, drums at their waists and drumsticks in their hands, twisting their heads as they dance which draws cheers from the audience.
The Chamdo and Kongpo regions and the Tibetan-inhabited areas of Sichuan and Yunnan are home to a bell-and-drum dance. In this energetic dance, the performers circle with flying steps, men beating flat bells while the women drum. At the height of the performance, the men perform pirouettes on one leg while the women beat their drums high above their heads as they twirl. Performers of the repa dance, as it is known in Tibet, wander from place to place putting on performances to support themselves. The repa dance requires considerable skill and demands a high-spirited, energetic performance, typical of the diastyle.
Another kind of drum dance is also found in Tibet. Categorized as a group dance, it has lost ground among the people and now appears solely in staged performances. Its dancers are selected from among monks, and its origins go back to the Devil Dances of ancient Bonism. In the dance, double drums are beaten and spells cast to drive out evil spirits. Masks are worn during the religious rituals and often for the dance itself. |
