Accompanied by the beating drum beats, the moving legend of the national treasure spans two thousand years and slowly unfolds on today's stage. From January 28th to January 30th, the national treasure cultural relics theme dance drama "Five Stars out of the East" will land in Shanghai Cultural Square, presenting a picture of human true feelings and national unity, and interpreting the theme of the times in which all ethnic groups live together and prosper under the background of the "Belt and Road" initiative.
The dance drama uses a Han Dynasty cultural relics tapestry woven with the words "five stars out of the East" as the introduction, leading the audience back to the distant western region buried by the endless yellow sand, outlining a legend of the Han Dynasty Shubian general Feng, the son of the Northern people chieftain Jiante, and the daughter of the jingjie ancient city chiefTain. In the play, there are the interpretation of the true disposition of the intertwined fate and the deepest love; there is the hu ji and han dance of the heavenly fragrance and the national color, the swaying posture; and the sonorous and powerful and powerful martial general Zhongyi soul...
Let the cultural relics "come alive" and tell Chinese stories with dance
When the brocade arm of "five stars out of the East and China" reappeared from the yellow sand, it seemed to knock on the door of time and space in the thousand-year-old western region. In October 1995, in an ancient tomb at the Niya ruins in Minfeng County, Hotan District, Xinjiang, members of the Sino-Japanese Niya site academic expedition team discovered this Han Dynasty brocade arm. The brocade is rounded rectangular, 18.5 cm long and 12.5 cm wide, and is woven with eight seal Chinese characters: "Five Stars Out of the East and Li China". The "Five Stars Out of the East and Benefiting China" brocade armband, now in the Xinjiang Museum, is hailed as one of the greatest discoveries of Chinese archaeology in the 20th century.
Telling the legendary story of a national treasure, the dance drama "Five Stars out of the East" premiered in June 2021 at the Tianqiao Arts Center Coliseum, a ticket is hard to find, and from September 25 to 27, the second round of dance drama performances was full. In the play, the national treasure is no longer a display lying quietly in the museum, and the actors transform the gorgeous colors that have not faded for two thousand years into enthusiastic dance steps, recreate history, tell the present, and write a new chapter of cultural exchanges, exchanges and integration.
According to reports, the "Five Stars out of the East" costumes combine the elements and colors in the excavated cultural relics from the color, style, pattern and other designs; the stage design is also based on the study of historical materials, through artistic processing, to restore the real historical scene on the stage. The lighting design also focuses on the color of the arm guard, which runs through the plot development.
Cultural self-confidence, emotional blending is fully displayed on the stage. Dong Ning, deputy general manager of Beijing Performing Arts Group, a dancer, said: "The condensation of cultural relics is not only a cultural image and cultural symbol, but also a cultural inheritance. We hope that we can interpret this cultural relic in our way, show the profound cultural connotation behind the cultural relics, let the cultural relics 'live' up, and use dance to 'tell' stories. ”
History has left only a few words, turning into a stunning talent on the stage
If you want to make cultural relics "speak", you must pay a lot of effort in your creation. It is reported that the dance drama "Five Stars out of the East" lasted two years to create, conducted six expert seminars, and changed manuscripts more than ten times. In order to highlight the profound cultural connotations behind the cultural relics, the main creative team went deep into the hinterland of the Taklamakan Desert to the ancient countries on the Silk Road a thousand years ago. Although history has only left a few words, the intuitive feeling of the style has a great impact on the creator.
On a piece of wood excavated from the Nya site, there is the inscription "Feng Jing asked Chun Jun unanimously with Lang Jie, fortunately not forgetting each other". "Fortunately, we don't forget each other" has become the core of the story that the creators want to convey - people living in the same land, breaking prejudice, dissolving hatred, holding hands, and not forgetting each other. It is precisely this kind of creative conception that has become an important carrier for interpreting the theme of "Chinese Community of Destiny" in the dance drama.
"Such a grand theme seems to be very positive, but we use light comedy colors to break the traditional way of dance drama and increase watchability." Chief choreographer Wang Ye started from the "small people" and saw the big with the small, so that the audience could see a more real history in the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East", vividly showing the customs and customs of the western region.
Gulimina Maimaiti, a dancer and associate professor at minzu University of China, plays the heroine Chunjun in the play. The "Lantern Dance", "Ancient Calling", performed by her in the dance variety show "Dance Millennium", has been played nearly 1.5 million times in Bilibili (Station B). Dancers dance with bright lights in their hands, and the lights move with them between the spinning dances. With the beating of the drums, the story of the thousand-year-old slowly unfolded in front of people's eyes.
Author: Xuanjing
Edited by: Shang Hui
Editor-in-Charge: Wang Yan
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.