"If you can only choose one drama in the Leek Mansion, I recommend "Yin Shi Said"." Drama fan Yang Xiaoyu said.
The "leek mansion" she calls it refers to the Asia Mansion. Located in the office building of Shanghai's People's Square business district, there are Qiankun, where more than a dozen plays of different categories such as musicals, talk shows, and dramas have been performed for a long time, harvesting the wallets of stubble fans. At present, "Yin Shi Shu" is the only dance theater work here.
In Yang Xiaoyu's view, "Yin Shi Said" is almost perfect: "The choreography, the dancer's interpretation, and the music are all excellent." If you want to talk about shortcomings, it is probably not easy to understand. This original work, which lasted about 70 minutes and was performed by only three people, entered the Star Space No. 5, that is, the Mountain Sleep Theater on October 28 last year, and the first day of the show was sold out. So far, the attendance rate has stabilized at more than 70%, and the 100th performance will be held in March. The response of "Yin Shi Said" surprised director Geng Zibo.
Faced with a completely unknown market, he was ready to lose money. "I used to think that a dance drama could only have three months of vitality, and no one wanted to watch a thing all the time. Luckily it can go on. ”
There is no language, only the art category that relies on body expressions to reach the meaning, and dance has always been niche and lonely. With the rise of dance variety shows such as "Dance Storm", high-quality dance dramas such as "The Eternal Electric Wave" and "Only This Green" appeared on platforms such as the Spring Festival Gala, and dance began to be accepted by the public. As the runner-up winner of Oriental Satellite TV's "Dancer", Geng Zibo is also a beneficiary of this wave.
"We have a jargon, take the least money, suffer the most. Dancers need to hone their bodies to the extreme in order to express higher artistic values. But in the past, most of them could only stand behind the singers as accompaniment dancers. Geng Zibo told First Finance.
In the past two years, dance dramas are moving towards a wider audience. Dancers such as Hou Ying, Tao Ye, and Xie Xin have created dance troupes with different styles, enriching the face of the dance industry. Like his predecessors, Geng Zibo, who was born in Chinese dance, was impacted by the trend of modern dance and hoped to explore a new path in the intersection of traditional culture and modern and contemporary dance.
Moved into Asia Tower
At the age of thirty, Geng Zibo founded the dance troupe Ziyue Dance Music, which in his view was already "full of courage". He never thought of being able to have his own dance theater. Even though it was his dream, he always felt that it should be after the age of forty. According to the entrepreneurial experience of the predecessors, after starting a dance company, it is usually first recruited actors, rehearsed works, contacted theater performances, and then toured various cities.
"This is an opportunity that suddenly came to me." A drama friend of Geng Zibo had his own theater in the Asia Building and recommended Geng Zibo to the yahua Lake Theater Line, the later co-producer of "Yin Shi Said", and after the exchange, the two sides hit it off. Small theaters such as the Asia Tower Star Space have become containers for incubating pioneering works, bringing creators and audiences closer together. When the art of dance mingles with the latest trends, the "impossible" of the past becomes a reality.
However, when he saw this space of less than 200 square meters, he instantly "collapsed", "My ideal theater is a tall, open, flat stage." It was completely different from what I had imagined. Before Star space 5 was transformed into a mountain sleep theater, it was a training institution divided into seven or eight classrooms, about four steps wide and only 2.8 meters high at the lowest level. ”
Geng Zibo thought about it, no one did it, he could try. A story that has been brewing in the mind for a long time gradually has an outline. The source of inspiration for "Yin Shi Shu" is the "Hongmen Banquet", "The Hongmen Banquet is not a normal banquet, and it is depressing after coming in. "The limitation of the height is precisely the sense of oppression required for the Hongmen banquet," the audience can feel this depression after entering the theater, everyone is a witness to history, see how Liu Bang came out of the Hongmen banquet and became a king. ”
It can be said that "Yin Shi Shu" is a work tailored for "Star Space No. 5". The 195-square-meter space is divided into gongque area, deciduous area and wooded area according to the needs of the plot and interpretation: "The gongque area is a piece of wood and a piece of wood spliced together by mortise and mortise. We want the audience to see the traditional Chinese architecture, ancient horse-drawn carriages, stone carvings, and feel the most original and essential culture. The incense they smell, the lights they see, and the atmosphere they feel all have a sense of belonging. ”
Yang Xiaoyu feels that "Yin Shi Shu" is not a dance drama that mainly tells stories: "You may not be able to say what each paragraph means, but you can clearly feel the emotions it conveys and the artistic conception it expresses." ”
An unprecedented stage
The ambient dance drama is performed in a small theater, which is almost an unprecedented experience for creators, dancers and even audiences. For Geng Zibo, the biggest challenge is how to balance business and art.
"I don't want to give up on anyone. The selection of materials is a well-known figure, and Liu Bang himself has a strong enough drama. The first half is relatively quiet and more ritualistic, and the second half is combined with the electric sound that young people like nowadays. Geng Zibo felt that it was enough that "Yin Shi Said" could instantly trigger the empathy and thinking of a certain audience.
The new type of performance relationship also puts forward higher requirements for the dancer's performance: "Not only the body is required, but also the dancer's management of the expression is required, and the dancer is tested whether the dancer has really paid attention to the role he plays." At such a close distance, a change in the eyes, and even a fluttering of eyelashes, the audience can see very clearly. There are only three people on the field and you have nowhere to hide. ”
The signed dancers of Ziyue Dance Music are excellent dancers selected from a large number of applicants, none of whom have played a leading role in the theater in the past, but are all group dancers: "Every dancer has a dream of dancing in the spotlight. Dancing with dance is a necessity for livelihood. Including Geng Zibo himself, this experience is new to everyone, "it turns out that dancers can also dance in such a space, so close to the audience." ”
However, the high-intensity resident performances still brought trouble to the dance troupe. "At the end of the first month, we were thinking every day, do we want to continue? Because the actor was very tired, after a period of exhaustion, he began to get injured. Wang Le, the founder of Ziyue Dance Music and the producer of "Yin Shi Say", admitted that at that time, the feedback from the audience gave the dancers and the dance troupe the strength to persevere. She often hears viewers say that "Yin Shi Shu" is different from other dramas in this building.
Xu Yingying is a regular visitor to Asia Mansion and has brushed up on several popular musicals, which is her first time watching dance dramas. In her opinion, as an introduction to dance dramas, to test whether she can accept this form, "Yin Shi Said" is quite cost-effective: "Not bad, let me have a little confidence in watching dance dramas." ”
"Audience feedback is the power to rush upwards for us." This is something they rarely experienced in the past, Wang Le's impression is that in the past, some dance dramas were performed in other places, and sometimes the audience came in with tickets, that is, to send tickets: "Snoring in the theater, eating melon seeds, playing with mobile phones, stealing films, and not having great expectations for the theater and the performance itself." In today's environment, in order to watch this play, the audience conscientiously abides by the rules, respects the theater, and respects the dancers. This respect is an opportunity for us to persevere, from such a pro-dance audience we have never seen before. ”
When dancers have fans
The wave of small theaters radiates from Shanghai to the whole country. Recently, "Yin Shi Shu" has also received residency invitations from all over the world. However, both Geng Zibo and Wang Le felt that this matter needed to be cautious.
In Geng Zibo's view, first of all, it happened in Shanghai, with an audience: "After years of precipitation, a city has cultivated the habit of audiences to go into the theater to buy tickets and watch plays through so many plays." The Asia Tower Small Theater model became the coordinates, and before we entered, it had accumulated a lot of fans, with audience traffic and attention, and I just came in at the right time. It's lucky. ”
"We often joke that the Asia Tower is the center of the universe. The center of the universe is magical, and it feels like a new way of life to come here on weekends to relieve fatigue. Some of the audience members were tired at work, and some of them worked at the door with computers, and then came in and cried with Liu Bang. I remembered going to work today, and Liu Bang was gone in the anger of being framed. Wang Le said.
In the atmosphere of the Asian Mansion, "Yin Shi Shu" as a dance theater work, like musicals and dramas, the actors began to have their own fans. Wang Le introduced that after the dancers' premiere, there will be fans to build super words for the actors on Weibo on the same day. This is rare in the traditional dance drama circle. In recent years, dance variety shows have emerged frequently, the concept of dance stars has risen, and the resident performance of popular musicals in The Asian Building has led the audience in the direction of musical theater to dance dramas, and also brought the star-chasing mode of musical theaters to the dance drama circle. Dancers also began to have fans ask for autographs and group photos. Here, traditional art categories collide with new trends. "This trend is not built by us, but by this building." Wang Le said.
Dancers who have been in obscurity for a long time stand in the spotlight and have an audience that likes them, which is also a boost for dancers or the dance industry. In Geng Zibo's vision, the starization of dancers is not inevitable, which will also be one of the directions for the future development of the dance company.