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Mongolian
Arts and Culture > Dance >
Traditional Dance
 TRADITIONAL
DANCE
Twisted, distorted "snaky
people," or contortionists, perform the type of classical
Mongolian dancing probably most familiar to people outside
Mongolia.
The "Bielgee" dance,
or dance of the body, is particular to the people of western
Mongolia. It is performed to the music of Mongolian national
musical instruments, such as the morin khuur (horsehead
fiddle) and the yochin (similar to the xylophone.) Bielgee
is traditionally performed on the rather limited space before
the hearth, so the dancers make practically no use of their
feet. Instead, the dancers principally use only the upper
part of their bodies, and through their rhythmic movements
express various aspects of their identities, such as sex,
tribe, and ethic group.
Bielgee is a descriptive dance,
actually a pantomime, with the dancer acting several scenes
from everyday life of herders, such as milking the cow, cooking,
hunting, etc. Originally, Bielgee was improvised, although
the themes were set. Only much later did it become strictly
regimented compositionally, with a firmly established sequence
of scenes. Also, over time, Bielgee was performed in a variety
of locations, including festivals in herders' tents, ceremonies
by local dignitaries, and monasteries.
The first part of the Bielgee
dance, called the Elkhendeg, is ritually solemn, with the
dancer slowly spreading his arms, gracefully waving his
hands and moving his shoulders. In the second part, called
the Joroo Mori, the character of the dance suddenly changes.
The body rhythmically swaying, the dancer's movements become
light and challenging, in imitation of the gait of a horse.
Dances imitating the gait
of a horse, such as the Shonon khar and Jamal khar, are in
general very popular amongst the Derbets, Bayads, Torguts,
Khotons and Zakhchins of western Mongolia. Each nationality,
however, performs them in its own way. The Bayads, for instance,
dance on half-bent legs, with the lower part of the body motionless.
The Zakhchins squat as they dance, with the body inclined
forward. The ability to dance without using one's feet at
all is the ultimate achievement in the art.
Another popular Western Mongolian
dance is performed with cups. You may come across old men
and women in the countryside who will tell you with fascination
what magnificent dancers performed it in the past when it
was very much in vogue. They balanced cups full of water
on their heads without spilling a single drop. The dance
varies depending on whether the cups are balanced on the
head, hands, or knees. The Derbets, Zakhchins and Torguts
dance with the cups on their heads and the backs of their
hands, while the Bayads balance the cups on their knees.
Significantly, only males danced with cups on their knees.
The dancers squatted as low as possible, spreading their
legs apart to the width of their shoulders, which was thought
improper for females to do. In olden days, the dance with
cups on the knees was performed on festive occasions, such
as feasts and wedding parties.
An interesting tradition arose
in the past in connection with the cup dance. A group gathering
in a ger on a festive occasion formed two teams and held a
dancing competition. They usually started with the cups on
the palms of their hands. Then they danced with cups on their
heads and on their knees, which was much more difficult to
do. Those who had spilled the least water from their cups
were proclaimed the winners.
Each dance is distinguished by extraordinary flexibility,
composition, and color. When examining the dances, it is useful
to recall that the traditional manner of performing Bielgee
and other dances has been handed down from generation to generation
and reaches us in a somewhat modified form.
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