Music, dance and storytelling
Songs, dances, theatre, epic poetry and oral history.
Music, dance and storytelling traditions are the performances that a community passes down by ear, eye and heart: the epic poem recited by a griot, the dance in a circle at a wedding, the shadow play of Java, the ballad of a village, the lullaby of a grandmother. They carry history, law and humour in forms that people can remember. Many are linked to festivals and rites, and many are on UNESCO's lists of intangible heritage. Here they are gathered by country, with notes on who performs them and when.
Songs and dances of the people
Folk music and dance are community property: they are learnt by joining in, not by lessons, and they change a little with every generation. Circle dances, line dances and couple dances accompany harvests and weddings, and instruments such as the drum, the fiddle, the pipe and the lute are made locally. In many places, there are separate songs for work, for love, for mourning and for children, and each has its own time and place.
Stories and theatre
Oral storytelling holds a society's memory: epics, myths, fables, proverbs and riddles told by elders. Some become formal theatre, such as kabuki and noh in Japan, wayang in Indonesia, the mumming plays of Britain or the Ramlila of India, which retells the Ramayana in a month of evenings. These forms often depend on one master teaching one student, and communities and governments now support them to keep them alive.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background on Music, dance and storytelling (kind of tradition). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
🇯🇵 JapanNōgaku能楽
A traditional Japanese theater form combining the lyric drama noh and the comic interludes kyōgen.Performance
🇰🇷 Seoul, South KoreaJultagi줄타기 (eoreum)
A traditional Korean tightrope performance that combines acrobatics with music and storytelling.Performance
🇰🇷 South KoreaMusok eumak무속 음악 (巫俗音樂)
Ritual music of Korean shamanism, sung and drummed to carry a shaman into trancePerformance
🇨🇳 Xi'an, ChinaXi'an guyue西安鼓乐
Ritual wind and percussion music from Xi'an, played sitting or walkingPerformance
🇨🇳 Hengyang, China and 1 moreShan'ge山歌
A family of Chinese folk ballads from the countryside, in many regional formsPerformance
🇰🇷 Jindo Island, South KoreaNamdo Field Songs남도 들노래
Farmers' choral work songs from South Jeolla, sung through the rice field yearPerformance
🇲🇳 MongoliaBiyelgeeБиелгээ
A traditional Mongolian dance of upper body movements rooted in nomadic lifePerformance
🇹🇼 TaiwanSimple Life Festival簡單生活節
A biennial cultural gathering in Taiwan featuring live music, markets and craftsFestival
🇯🇵 JapanJiuchi地打ち
The steady base beat that holds traditional Japanese music and taiko ensembles togetherPerformance
🇨🇳 ChinaEighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute胡笳十八拍
A Chinese song and poetry cycle telling the story and sorrow of Cai WenjiPerformance
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Jultagi: Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Xi'an guyue: Liuxingy, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Nōgaku: Daderot, CC0, source
- Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute: Copy painting in Ming era, Public domain, source
- Biyelgee: J bayarmagnai, CC0, source