Zaizung Raft Dance

The Zaizung raft dance is an annual ritual performance used at the festival of X in most cities in Zaizung. It is unclear if it was an older dance that was coöpted for Iovist use, or is an original style for Iovists. The dance is done with two dancers on a tethered raft, and the dancers use the motion of the rocking raft to jump higher.

The dancers are traditionally of the same gender, but dances with two men and two women (and two third gender people? look into gender in Zaizung) are both common. Both dancers act out the balance between the order-focused Hosha and the chaotic Muhe, with moments of both representing the same god, and with moments of one dancer for each god.

Steps from the raft dance are used in the Zaizung kick dance.

Hoshist style

The dancer is in second position with the feet a little bit wider than shoulder with apart, in a demi-plié. The hand shape used to represent Hosha is with a finger touching a thumb and the rest of the fingers extended. Which finger is used depends on what story the dancer is telling. Jumps and turns in this style are done with straight legs. Since the basic step in this already has bent legs, there is no wind-up step, and leaps and chaînes turns come out seamlessly. Most leaps and turns from this style are travelling, although in the late 20th C, the pencil turn was introduced, to parallel the pirouette done in the style for Muhe.

Muhic style

The dancer is in a straight legged first position, shuffling side to side on each beat. This allows them to reädjust to stay stable, but makes the raft unstable. The position of the hands is fingers splayed out, and vibrating (jazz hands). Legs up in the air tend to be bent, like for a stag leap or a pirouette. These tend to be in-place movements. This style requires a prep step before doing any of these, adding to the "jagged" feel of the style.

Music

The music for two Hoshas is similar to the music of the cloth running section of the Table dance, and the music for two Muhes is similar to the soup section. The music for one of each is ?