First of all, court dance
Singapore is highly tolerant of foreign cultures, and we can see the shadows of other countries' dances from its most representative dances. Singapore's court dance is deeply influenced by China's traditional operas, with obvious China color in both spiritual culture and figurative movements. China Opera is a comprehensive performing art, which combines many artistic elements such as literature, music, dance, recitation, martial arts, acrobatics, fine arts, illusion, etc., and skillfully blends them together to express complex social life and tortuous and vivid story with rich forms of expression, and to depict the thoughts and feelings of different characters. China's traditional operas have a fixed formula and formed a unique artistic style in the historical development. It is a valuable intangible cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, which has its own most distinctive artistic characteristics and is unique in the history of world art. Since the emergence of traditional Chinese opera, dance has been continuously absorbed. Among the four artistic means of drama, drama dance occupies "sitting" and "beating". China traditional opera dance is mainly composed of various characters, plots and scenes, dancing life movements, beautiful dance passages and wonderful martial arts acrobatics. Singapore's court dance has absorbed some elements of China's traditional opera. The hand, eye, body, method, step, shape, spirit, strength and rhyme in dance all inherit the essence of traditional Chinese opera. In Singapore's court dances, there are often movements commonly used in traditional operas, such as cloud hand, hot wheels, double waving, rounder, swallow shooting, blue finger, gable arm and so on. And there are the shadows of the eyes, the board, the body and the law in traditional Chinese opera. The appearance and rotation in Peking Opera are the highlights. China people brought China's operas and dances to Singapore and gradually developed them. According to the literature, since 1887, there have been theaters performing traditional operas in Singapore, and many traditional operas and dances of China have been preserved in Singapore. Chinese Singaporeans combine China's operas and dances with dances of other races in Singapore to create dance works that represent the essence of China culture and Singapore.
In addition, the court dance in Singapore is also influenced by the culture and art of other Southeast Asian countries, which has certain Southeast Asian characteristics. The dance style is mainly "three bends", and the knees are open outwards, showing a semi-squat shape. The addition of dances from other countries in Southeast Asia makes its court dance solemn and lively, while Gu Zhuo is light and graceful, full of sculpture. Due to the geographical location and historical relationship between Singapore and Malaysia, many dances in Singapore often involve Malaysian dances. On the basis of Malay folk dance, Malaysia's court dance has absorbed the essence of dance art from Thailand, Indonesia and other countries and gradually improved it, thus cultivating a number of outstanding court dance artists. Up to now, there are: Ashi Dance influenced by Thai court dance, Candle Dance influenced by Indonesian Sumatra court dance, Changjia Ai Yin Dance, Gamelan Juji Dance, etc. The most famous court dance spread from Malays to Singapore is the Zhu Ji dance, which is usually performed in celebrations and social occasions. This kind of dance is very similar to Cha Cha, both in dance steps and music. The dance rhythm is slow and elegant, but its style is lively and cheerful, entertaining and entertaining. Guests or tourists are usually invited to join Zhu Ji's dance. The court dance in Singapore is also influenced by Hinduism, and the people of Singapore attach great importance to the classical court dance in India, which has a strong religious color and gives people a mysterious feeling. The famous Indian classical court dances are Ketak dance, Manipuli dance, Bharata dance and Getakri dance. Although the population of India accounts for less than 8% of Singapore's total population, they occupy an important position in Singapore's dance industry. The versatile Mr Pascal came to Singapore on 1952 and made outstanding contributions to the popularization of Indian dance. His most important achievement is the popularization of Indian classical dance and takkari dance in Kerala, southwest India. The latter is a typical stylized Indian classical dance drama. Different occupations have their own characteristics in makeup and performance, and the performance form is also very special. During his nearly 60 years of teaching career, he and his wife have worked tirelessly to train new dancers with high-quality teaching and have been creating new works with traditional dances. In the mid-1950s, he introduced Indian dance to people of other races in Singapore. From 65438 to 0958, he boldly performed China's famous love story "Butterfly Lovers" with Indian classical dance, which attracted a large number of China dance lovers to learn Indian classical dance and appreciate Indian performing arts. Today, at the age of nearly 90, he still devotes himself to adapting Malay culture and China's stories, folklore and literary works into Ka Taccari dance drama. He successfully put The Journey to the West's novel Pansidong in the Ming Dynasty and the Malay folklore The Story of Hongshan on the stage, and constantly contributed to Singapore's multicultural construction. Singapore has absorbed and developed the court dance cultures of different races, and the multi-cultures blend with each other, adding infinite charm to the court dance in Singapore.
Singapore's palace dance costumes continue the tradition of Southeast Asian people's care for art and gorgeous production of costumes and jewelry, which is very exquisite and luxurious. Clothing and jewelry have different styles and are very distinctive, incorporating China elements, Thai elements and Indian elements. The flowers on the headdress and jewelry are vividly carved, which will naturally vibrate with the activities of the actor's head, and its fineness and exquisiteness are amazing. The dancer's dress is a short coat and a long skirt over the knee, which has a certain fullness, so that in addition to the dancer's upper and lower bodies looking harmonious, it can also highlight its unique style.