Dan
Back by popular demand after I published my 'Sheng' post, I shall now continue with the 'Dan'. (Yah i know i am lying as there wasn't any popular demand, I said that just to satisfy my ego can?)
Dan 旦 is a general term for female characters in opera. Like the Sheng, there are quite a few different kinds of dan. the most popular known one is of course the Hua dan 花旦 and Qing Yi 青衣.
Except for these 2, we still have the Wu dan 武旦,Dao Ma Dan 刀马旦，Lao dan 老旦，Cai dan 彩旦.That is quite a lot.
Ok.. here goes....
1)Qing Yi 青衣 - is also know as Zheng dan 正旦 or Gui Men Dan 闺门旦. It is called a Qing Yi because this kind of dan used to wear green zhe zi,褶子. Actually it is not green, it is blue but the chinese like to call the colour blue as green, don't ask me why.Qing Yi are those matured and normally married women of the middle age. Not the auntie type you see in the market, is those middle aged type you see in CBD area.
Qing yi focus mainly on singing. They have very little movements but alot of singing. Hence, this hang dang has difficulties in recruiting people. I understand that in Kunqu, they are short of qing yi as few people can manage to pass the vocal test.
Examples are Wang Bao Chuan 王宝川,Yang Gui Fei 杨贵妃 of 贵妃醉酒 and Li Yan Fei 李艳妃 of 二进宫.
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2)Hua Dan 花旦 - are the cute, lively and young female characters. Traditionally, they wear
short blouses that reach the hips together with pants or skirts. This hang dang focus alot on movements and speech. A Qing Yi is normally accompanied by a Hua Dan maid.
Examples are Hong Niang 红娘 of Xi xiang ji 西厢记 and Yan Xi jiao 阎惜姣 of Wu Long Yuan 乌龙院。
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3)Dao Ma Dan 刀马旦 － are young female warrior. Dao Ma Dan are named like this because they normally perform horse riding together with a spear. This hang dang seems similiar with the Wu Dan but actually there is a difference. Dao Ma Dan do not do as much fighting as Wu Dan, in fact, they sing alot too. They usually perform a combination of dance and singing.
Dao Ma Dan usually put on the female warrior costume with the flags behind. I haven't seen alot of Dao Ma dan performances, examples I have seen is Liang Hong Yu 梁红玉 and 穆桂英。
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4)Wu dan 武旦 - Wu Dan specialises in fighting with all kinds of weapons. I just found out that in the past, the Wu dans need to cai qiao 踩跷 and the Dao Ma Dans do not do this. Cai Qiao is a very difficult kind of skill. I requires the actress to stand on tip toe through out the whole show. The actress will put on something similiar to high heels shoes but the heels of this special kind of shoe is so high that you are pratically standing on tip toe. .... I want to watch wudans on cai qiao!!!! I never seen it before and i want to see it!!! :( （May... You should learn this skill... hee hee.. :P joking)
(Picture of qiao xie)
Wu dans have to master alot of acrobatic movements, just like the wushengs. They specialise only in the fighting hence they seldom sing or speak. However, I think singing is equally important. I have seen Wu dans who sang very well too. She is Fang Xiao Ya 方小亚!
(This is not Fang Xiao Ya)Examples of Wu dans are zhi zhu jing 蜘蛛精 of Pan si dong 盘丝 洞 and Hu San Niang 扈三娘 of Hu Jia Zhuang 扈家庄。
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5)Lao Dan 老旦 - Lao Dans pretty obviously are those aged women. They have their own set of movements and gestures, different from Qing Yi.
Also Lao Dan's costumes are less vibrant and they do not wear those shoes with fur balls. I quite
like watching this hang dang as their singing is superb.
An example is She Tai Jun 舍太君 of Yang Men Nv Jiang 杨门女将。
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6) Cai Dan 彩旦 - These are the clownish roles. They don't act like normal dans and they do clownish gestures. Their movements are more towards normal daily movements and not those operatic type.
Clownish dans are now normally done by men. Hence they look really ugly. It is so difficult to find a picture of cai dan and can't get my stupid pc to print screen normally. So for the moment, you can just imagine a man in woman's costume.
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