The 24th Beijing Winter Olympics is in full swing, and the performance "Li Chun" at the opening ceremony is still fresh in people's minds.
This was the only performance of the outside actors invited at the opening ceremony. Nearly 400 glowing flexible poles swayed on the stage like green grass with the wind, and like poles and bamboo pointing to the sky, and finally the seeds that transformed into dandelions floated into the distance.
Underneath the flexible bars, there are nearly 400 players, all teenagers, dressed in emerald green clothes, holding 9-meter-long poles, accurately showing an angle of 0 degrees, 15 degrees, 90 degrees and even 176 degrees. The distance between each person is only 1.5 meters, and each person's beat reaches a maximum of 240 per minute. The performance team came from two martial arts schools in Shandong, of which 355 were students of the Chinese Martial Arts School in Laizhou, Shandong.
↑ Winter Olympics opening ceremony "Li Chun" live performance
It is understood that after receiving the notice from the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee in September last year, the students of the China Martial Arts School began a drill for four and a half months. The players are about 175 cm tall and practice for 8 hours a day. At first, he took a 6-kilogram stainless steel prop pole, until the morning of December 4, 2021, when principal Li Mingzhi handed the flag of the leader of the school's Winter Olympics performance team to vice president Zang Hua, and the team members began to embark on the journey into Beijing for training, and officially got the luminous pole of the performance on December 13.
Unlike the prop material, the performance rod obtained is a highly flexible carbon fiber rod, which is more difficult to control. If there is no usual strict training, if these students lack strong basic skills and comprehensive quality, it is impossible to adapt to the performance pole for more than a month, and it is impossible to achieve zero mistakes in changing the phalanx and turning on and off the lights in live performances.
After the performance, director Zhang Yimou commented that Laizhou Zhonghua Martial Arts School is the only group of actors invited outside the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, and after the successful experiment of the props of the luminous pole, dancing them requires the flexibility and strength of the waist and abdomen, which is not easy to master. After deciding to let the students of the Zhonghua Wushu School do a lot of simulations with computers before performing, after the training video of the Zhonghua Wushu School came, it gave the director team a lot of confidence, and after coming to Beijing, it was also very well managed and organized and disciplined. "We have never worried, and it can be said that the program "Li Chun" was largely completed by these children from the Laizhou Zhonghua Martial Arts School."
During the training, the scene of these students holding up a long pole at the beach to practice against the wind also made netizens sigh "very hard" and "very shocking". Zang Hua, vice president of the Zhonghua Martial Arts School and leader of the school's Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony performance team, said in an interview with Red Star News that training at the beach is to challenge the difficulty, practice stability, and also to cope with unexpected events during the performance, worried about the wind on the scene. During the performance, the students control the balance in the movement while holding the flexible rod, and at the same time control the switch, which is very difficult. After each rehearsal, I had to cut the details of small mistakes and small problems, and finally achieved a complete success on the evening of February 4, and the students were also very excited, "I feel that I am winning glory for the country, to show the style of the Chinese Martial Arts School to the global audience, to show the strength of China." ”
The following is a conversation between Red Star News and team leader Zang Hua.
The school participated in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
Red Star News: Are the students who performed live now back in school?
Zang Hua: Now that we have returned to school, we returned to school by bus on February 5th.
Red Star News: In addition to the "Li Chun" program, did the China Martial Arts School have any other alternative programs at the Winter Olympics before?
Zang Hua: In addition to this program, we also participated in the performance at the end of the opening ceremony at the Winter Olympics. The whole official program of the opening ceremony was just one of us, and the others were ritual performances. After the performance, director Zhang Yimou spoke well of us because he was assured of our team and had worked together before.
Red Star News: Where did this idea come from? Why did you think of the Chinese Martial Arts School performance?
Zang Hua: The idea of our program is the general director, probably because we have participated in many large-scale activities before, such as the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, the opening ceremony of the Asian Games, etc. Maybe our team is more recognized by many directors, including our discipline, our ability to execute, the ability to take responsibility, is the brand that is made bit by bit.
In addition, in 2008, we also cooperated with director Zhang Yimou, and at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, we participated in the performance of "Human Bird's Nest" and "Earth Trapeze", and these large-scale activities have our students.
Red Star News: When performing the show, how were the more than 300 students selected?
Zang Hua: We are according to the requirements of the director group, one of which must be about 1.75 meters tall and strong, which is the selection criteria. On average, students have practiced for more than two or three years and have basic skills.
Red Star News: What was the difficulty during the performance? What skills are needed?
Zang Hua: The main difficulty lies in supporting a long pole of nearly 10 meters, and this long pole is very soft, tough and elastic, 393 students each have a different angle, to do a more complete, when the force can not be hard, to be flexible. When the force is exerted, it is also necessary to prevent the long pole from trembling, there is no fixed route, which is difficult to operate.
There is also the problem of the switch, this lever is artificial control, not mechanical operation. Listening to the instructions, the director says "turn on the light", and the corresponding student turns on the switch. The position of the switch is just located at the waist, and sometimes students will mistakenly turn on the light when practicing, including folding the rod together when exiting, and may be illuminated when withdrawing.
↑ Chinese Martial Arts School Training Scene
From the beginning of our play, no instruction is never allowed to light the light, we must go to the specified position, receive the "turn on the light" instruction to turn on. In the process of lighting, there is also a change of light, from green to white, including when withdrawing, the command "turn off the lights", and a pole on the scene cannot be lit. The whole operation process is in motion, and the hand must also operate the balance and control the switch, which is a great difficulty.
The seaside wind top practice challenges the difficulty and practices stability
Red Star News: When you practiced before, did you have to go to the beach to practice against the wind?
Zang Hua: We practiced at the Chinese Martial Arts School in Laizhou City for a while, and we also practiced at the beach for a while. Our rehearsals last year were closed, because it was relatively close to the sea, often blowing sea breezes, but also to challenge the difficulty, thinking about dealing with some unexpected things after arriving at the bird's nest, worrying about the wind, but also practicing stability. I practiced by the beach for more than a month, and under normal circumstances, I practiced about 8 hours a day.
↑ Chinese Martial Arts School usual training scene
Red Star News: After the performance, how did the students of the China Martial Arts School feel?
Zang Hua: We are very excited, after all, we have been rehearsing for four months, on one of the world's largest stages, to show the global audience the style of our Chinese martial arts school, to show the strength and style of China, I feel that we are winning glory for the country, the students are very excited, they all have a very excited emotion. Because we have succeeded after all, everyone is very happy.
Red Star News: What stories did you impress with during the rehearsal process?
Zang Hua: Because before the official performance, we had five official rehearsals, the last one was on February 2. Every time we rehearse, we will find some small mistakes and small problems in the usual rehearsal, and then summarize the experience according to the results of each rehearsal, and the targeted details will be targeted after each rehearsal.
↑Zang Hua, the leader of the opening ceremony performance team of the Beijing Winter Olympics of the China Martial Arts School, was at the rehearsal scene
Why did february 4th succeed? It is that when we usually rehearse, we go with the director team to overcome some difficult and easy to make mistakes, and we will carefully practice every time.
We also went to the substitute staff, just worried that some students may not be able to play due to emergencies, such as one of us has a child, a month before the performance, received a call from home, saying that dad died in a car accident. Because this child was originally a single-parent family, we hurried to arrange for the child to go back. When he had finished handling everything, he called us in a hurry to go back to Beijing, and let us refuse, because the child may not be in a very good mood at this time, and the other is the cause of the epidemic.
That is to say, we must prepare a lot of substitutes at any time, and we can practice and act on the field.
Red Star News reporter Lu Yanfei provided a picture of the interviewee
Edited by Zhang Xun
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