The folk performing art of “Dancing with running lights and singing with ancient Cheo” is closely associated with the Ngu Vong Phuong festival of the people of Nhan Cao village, Thieu Quang commune (Thieu Hoa). For hundreds of years, the people here have strived to preserve and promote the unique cultural values of the locality. We are even more proud when the folk performing art of “Dancing with running lights and singing with ancient Cheo” is recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Meritorious artist Dam Van Su, despite his old age, still loves the "Dancing with running letters and singing traditional Cheo".
Nhan Cao village, also known as Ngoi village, is located on the right bank of Ma river and was formed about 600 years ago. Here, there is Nhan Cao temple to worship Duc Thanh Ca and other gods who have contributed to protecting the country and saving the villagers from floods. Every year, from the 8th to the 12th of January, the villagers often organize Ngu Vong Phuong festival with activities such as sacrifices, boat processions, human chess, lion dances...; the most special of which is the performance of "lantern dance, ancient cheo singing".
Artist Dam Van Su is 96 years old this year, but every time the village or hamlet organizes a performance with the performance “Dancing with running letters, singing Cheo and combing the ancient tune”, his love for this art form seems to rise up. To wear the hat and shirt, to let his soul follow the rhythm of the drums, the zither, the two-stringed fiddle and the dance of the girls in the lantern dancing team, there is no greater joy for him.
According to artisan Dam Van Su and the elders in the village: “No one knows when the lantern dance and cheo chai singing started in Thieu Quang, only that the later generations followed the previous generations. The members of the lantern dance team in Nhan Cao village are the generations that were directly taught by the excellent artisan Dam Van Su and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuy, who always have a deep love for cheo chai singing and do not want the traditional lantern dance of their homeland to be lost or forgotten.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy, member of the Thieu Quang commune lantern dance team.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy, a member of the Thieu Quang commune lantern dance team, said, “Since I was very young, I often went to watch lantern dance performances during spring festivals and village festivals. After getting married, I was directly taught by my mother-in-law, Ms. Nguyen Thi Chua, captain of the Nhan Cao village lantern dance team, who won a gold medal with an excellent lantern dance performance at the 1979 National Mass Arts Festival Region III of the Ministry of Culture and Information.”
The unique and distinctive feature of the art of running-letter lantern dance is the combination of Cheo Chai singing and dance movements to create a lantern dance suite, in which Cheo Chai singing includes 4 songs: Hat Giao Chai, Hat Vu Quat, Hat Cheo Thuyen, Hat Giao Chan Sao. The content of the songs praises the merits of Duc Thanh Ca and the village's tutelary god as well as expressing the people's aspirations for a prosperous, peaceful and happy life.
Each lantern dance team consists of 12 girls wearing the same outfit, white blouse inside, black skirt reaching to the heels, pink scarf tied around the waist, round hair on the head, red scarf tied around the head. On the background music, the lantern dance teachers sing:
Glass water presentation
Listen quietly
We teach the light
My lamp is now passed down to future generations.
Light the lamp and wait for the emperor
Light up the lamp to shine in all directions
That's what we call a public lamp...
When the music starts, the girls in the lantern dance team will put a lantern disc on their heads, sing and dance, and finally arrange the letters one, two, three, four, and five. After performing the letters according to the arranged shape, the whole team will lie down, turn over and roll to form a five-petal flower, then move in a horizontal line looking up at the altar, lift the lantern disc on their heads with both hands, bow down, and leave the stage. The skillful and graceful movements of the members make the audience admire.
According to Ms. Thuy: "The lantern dance requires a flexible combination of many skills and movements to keep the lantern on the head steady, not letting the candle go out, but still remembering the position, and performing other dance movements and arranging letters."
Performance "Dance with running lights, singing traditional Cheo".
For each member of the Nhan Cao village art troupe, singing cheo chai and dancing with running lights are not only for performance but also a responsibility to preserve and conserve for future generations. Not only performing in village and commune festivals, singing cheo chai and dancing with running lights have participated in many performances and won high prizes in mass art performances at district and provincial levels such as: second prize at the 14th Thanh Hoa Ethnic Culture Festival in 2012; A prize at the 18th Thanh Hoa Ethnic Culture Festival to promote and welcome the 19th Thanh Hoa Provincial Party Congress, term 2020-2025; good singing prize at the Thieu Hoa District Elderly Singing Festival in 2022; A prize at the 19th Thanh Hoa Ethnic Culture Festival in 2022...
In order to preserve and promote traditional cultural values, in March 2023, UNESCO recognized the folk performing art of “Dancing with running letters, singing Cheo with ancient combs” as a national intangible cultural heritage. Thieu Hoa district is preparing to organize a reception ceremony on February 21, 2024 (ie January 12 of the lunar calendar) and is proposing to recognize Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy as a folk artist.
The lantern dance is a unique and long-standing cultural feature of Nhan Cao Village, which serves the spiritual and cultural life of the people and connects the village and neighborhood. In today's national renewal, with responsibility and passion, the "peasant artists" in Thieu Quang still diligently practice and cultivate their capital so that the artistic quintessence of their ancestors is not lost, so that traditional cultural values are always preserved and promoted, enriching the cultural identity of the Vietnamese people.
Thanh Mai (Contributor)
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