Stills of Zhu Jiejing in the dance drama "The Eternal Wave".
Stills of Zhu Jiejing in the dance drama "Crested Ibis".
Poster of the dance drama "The Radio Waves That Never Disappear".
The skirt when I was 6 years old, as if it were a pair of hands, led me into the door of the art of dance; The "Crested Ibis" dance dress helped me push open the door and see the bigger world after dance, which gave me a new understanding of the profession of dancer.
——Zhu Jiejing
On February 11, 2021 (Chinese New Year's Eve), in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala Dance Chapter, the "25 Crested Ibises" danced smartly, surprising the audience.
It is worth noting that the lead dancer "Crested Ibis", known as "Ibis", is the vice chairman of the Shanghai Dancers Association, the chief of the Shanghai Song and Dance Troupe, and the national first-class actor Zhu Jiejing.
It is understood that the 36-year-old Zhu Jiejing has been accompanied by the dance drama "Crested Ibis" for 7 years, "This dance drama is a story about people and birds, birds and the environment, it tells the process of human beings and crested ibises knowing, relying on each other and accompanying each other a thousand years ago." Zhu Jiejing said that in the new stage art of the fusion of symphonic music and Chinese dance, our group of ibises performed actions such as "wading", "perching" and "xiang" to restore the most realistic image of the crested ibis.
Born in Jiaxing and raised in Shanghai, Zhu Jiejing said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China City Daily that Jiaxing has given me too much touch and strength, and the humanistic spirit of Jiaxing in the new era of "red boat spirit" and "diligence and beauty, courage and progress" has been engraved in my heart. As a dancer, I want to be pure enough to learn to persevere, love life, and revere art.
China City Daily: In 1995, you came to Shanghai alone, from a primary school apprentice to a song and dance troupe leader, from a group dance to a heroine who won the "Lotus Flower Award", from a dancer to a vice president of the dance association, from an ignorant young dancer to a young dancer. After more than 20 years of seeking art, what are some interesting experiences? How do you stand firm in your original intentions in the most difficult times?
Zhu Jiejing: Dormitory, practice room, stage, bus ride... This is my most authentic state of life.
I vaguely remember when I was 6 years old, immediately during the Spring Festival, my parents bought me a dress from Shanghai, and I never saw such a beautiful ruffle, which was really the most beautiful dress I had ever seen at that time. Since then, I have remembered the city of Shanghai, and in my heart, Shanghai and beauty have drawn an equal sign.
At that time, I had a dream: to wear a beautiful dress and go around every day. I thought of various reasons, and finally thought of dancing, and whenever I think of this, I always feel that this ruffled skirt inadvertently opened my yearning for dance and Shanghai.
When I was 9 years old, I was admitted to the Shanghai Dance School. I found that the city of Shanghai not only has the "most beautiful skirts", but also all kinds of new "excitement".
It wasn't until I started becoming a professional dancer at the age of 16 that I had more opportunities to perform on stage in skirts.
The "Wild Zebra" is full of excitement, the poignant and moving "Overlord Farewell", the fierce "Red Clouds on the Edge of the Sky"... One role at a time, I gradually stood firm on the stage C position.
Eight years later, injuries were unexpected — on August 6, 2009, I had an accident during rehearsals, with a slippery patella in my knee and a large tear in the medial ligament of my left leg. The pain of tearing the heart and lungs, the pain is so painful that even the tears cannot fall; The doctor wrote down the diagnosis of "can't dance".
The injury was so bad that I could no longer stand on the stage and dance intact, and it was a pain of being stripped naked and covered in blood. But deep down, I still firmly believe that I can return to the stage.
In order to get up early, I chose high-intensity rehabilitation training and saw almost all the motor neurologists in China. After five months of rehabilitation, my once swollen knee and muscle-atrophied left leg were basically restored to health, and miraculously returned to the stage of the lead actor.
China City Daily: From the dance drama "Red Clouds in the Sky" to "The Eternal Airwaves", how have you successfully created a touching and profound character?
Zhu Jiejing: In 2011, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the dance and poetry drama "Red Clouds in the Sky" toured to Beijing, and the party branch of the Shanghai Song and Dance Troupe held a special ceremony for me to prepare for the conversion of party members.
From that moment on, the identity of the actor and the identity of the party member overlapped, and the sense of responsibility and mission on my shoulders became stronger, and I understood more clearly, who was the dance for?
I think I want to hide myself behind the characters, so that the audience can no longer see Zhu Jiejing, but one vivid character after another on the stage, and one after another shocking story.
In my opinion, most of the traditional military-themed literary and artistic works feature masculine and tough men as the protagonists, but "Red Clouds in the Sky" embodies the perseverance and sacrifice of women on the battlefield. The actors should wash away the jiangnan and Haipai dance styles, integrate them into the difficult environment of the Long March, and shape the image of female soldiers in the war. The main theme of the whole play is the fighting and tragic battle scenes, but there are also romantic and warm interludes.
The "Lan Fen" in "The Eternal Electric Wave" is delicate and introverted, and under the gentle appearance of the Jiangnan woman, she also has a strong and resolute heart. How to grasp the balance between softness and fortitude, so that the role is more realistic, the actor needs the accumulation of years to enrich the experience and perception.
The revolutionary's wish is for the next generation to see the fruits of victory, and she must bear witness to it with her children. When I starred in the dance poetry drama "Red Clouds in the Sky" as "Cloud" in my early 20s, it was difficult for me to appreciate the miscellaneous tastes that were far away from my lover.
Today, the dance drama "The Eternal Airwaves" has been performed nearly 300 times, and I have danced more than 150 times, and I have a deeper understanding of the role of "Lan Fen".
For example, on stage, when I play the scene of "Lan Fen" holding the child to greet the dawn, I will think of a family letter written by Li Bai to Qiu Huiying in prison, and these contents, the strength accumulated in ordinary daily life, suddenly poured out.
I realized that the child in her womb is not only a crystallization of love, but also a sustenance and hope for light and beauty. I began to find the deepest resonance of the soul, and under the plain and elegant appearance of "Lan Fen" there was an extraordinary firmness, that is, it stemmed from the strong belief of the Communists.
China City Daily: Seven years of grinding a sword, how do you let the dance drama "Crested Ibis" "fly" into the hearts of audiences across the country?
Zhu Jiejing: Crested ibises are very precious, and people who dance "Crested Ibis" are very happy. When I came across this work, I would like to believe that it is a gift of fate.
Although the dance drama "Crested Ibis" has been staged more than 250 times, I am still full of passion. For me, every show is the first.
"Crested Ibis" "flew" on the stage of the 2021 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and now, I close my eyes, and every flexible and romantic note and every moment of dedication to creation is in my mind, and the aftertaste is endless.
The lighter the "ibises" on the stage flew, the heavier my practice offstage became. The body language of thousands of hammers and hammers integrates Western dance and Chinese dance elements such as ballet, depicting the elegant posture of birds "wading", "perching" and "flying", I need to forget myself, release myself, fade myself, and let that character merge with your body to achieve a state of unity between form and god. For example, the situation presented in the dance drama: the crested ibis from a modern perspective, time travel, young journalists meet the crested ibis, cut down trees, dry lakes, crested ibises with nowhere to go face the threat of death... In modern society, the last time the old man and the crested ibis met, they were frozen in the museum.
In my opinion, a 5 minutes and 30 seconds of "Crested Ibis" only interprets the agility and beauty of birds, but this is not enough to express the more profound humanistic connotation of dance drama. "Crested Ibis" condenses our understanding of life, uses the loss of the past to ask how human beings cherish, and calls on people to fear nature and life.
China City Daily: It is not easy to be a dancer with a soul, what do you think is the most precious trait of a dancer?
Zhu Jiejing: When I participated in the "Dance Forest Competition" program, I once said that our dancers are not the dance groups that accompany the singers and the background of the walls of the major parties, but the angels who convey beauty and happiness.
As a native of Jiaxing, Zhejiang, the spirit of the Red Boat is deeply rooted in the bones and blood. I often introduce the red gene of Jiaxing City to my friends in the dance industry, hoping to jointly create more red dance dramas and write the "soul" of dance into reality.
Art is touching and transforming, and good works of art can evoke red genes and national feelings.
Although my waist and legs are not as soft as before, and my physical strength seems to be less abundant, my heart to dance is becoming more and more transparent- as long as the audience is still there and the dance is still there.
Reporter: Juanhua Hu