From March 22, Shanghai Ballet's "Art Up and Forward Online Performance Week" will successively launch three wonderful dramas of "City Colors 2022", "Blooming" and "Shining Red Star". At the same time, Shangba will also open the "Ballet Cloud Classroom", and the leader Of the group, Xin Lili, and the actors will bring you a full of vitality ballet training. Among them, the original works in "City Colors 2022" are based on the "Beethoven Ninth Symphony" and presented in the form of modern ballet group dance, depicting the lofty faith and indomitable will of human beings in the face of disaster, and interpreting the tenacious spirit of constantly fighting against fate.
Since february 2020, when the water test was carried out live on the "Cloud Classroom", the Shangba actors tapped their toes and danced in the clouds, creating tens of millions of loud volumes. As of today, Shanghai Ballet has reached 467,000 fans on the Douyin platform alone, received 2.015 million likes from netizens, and the highest single video playback volume exceeded 14 million, ranking among the "Top Ten Art Institutions of Douyin" in early 2021.
How can a top dance company with a history of 43 years expand the vast "cloud stage"? Dare to test the water, deep ploughing, Shangba handed over a beautiful "cloud answer sheet". "The Shanghai State-owned Academy Group deepened reform and innovation under the deployment of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, adhered to the performance as the center, and adhered to the priority of social benefits." In the face of the new crown epidemic, we have launched many 'cloud' cultural works, so that everyone can enjoy high-quality public cultural services without going out. Xin Lili, director of the Shanghai Ballet, said that in the future, Shanghai Ballet will continue to strive to enrich the spiritual and cultural life of the people with excellent literary and artistic works and high-quality cultural services.
Dare to test the waters: The daily ballet training course has become different due to the "war epidemic"
Shanghai Ballet's "Journey to the Cloud" began with a live public class two years ago. On the morning of February 29, 2020, the rehearsal hall on the first floor of the Shanghai Ballet sounded a melodious piano sound, and more than 10 actors, including chief star actor Fan Xiaofeng and Wu Husheng, held the handlebars over and over again, doing the rubbing and squatting movements over and over again, and Xin Lili played the beat on the side, pointing out the essentials of the action... A daily ballet lesson that became different because of the "war epidemic".
In the rehearsal hall, everyone wore a mask, more than two meters apart, wearing a mask to dance ballet, breathing a little short, physical exertion was greater, and after a while, Wu Husheng's practice clothes were soaked with sweat. At the other end of the rehearsal hall, a row of cameras was set up to record the most professional demonstration movements of the actors, and then sent these shots to the eyes of more than 980,000 dance fans through the Network. On the same day, shangba's official Douyin number released the first short video of "Art Up and Forward , Shaking Spirit Cloud Practice", opening up a new stage for Haipai art.
Live streaming of basic training courses has become a hit, but Shangba has not stopped there. They actively explore the "cloud classroom" and "cloud dating" models to cultivate more ballet lovers and prepare for the rebound of the performance market after the end of the epidemic. They also try to turn the annual examination room into a live broadcast room, so that millions of netizens and experts can be "referees" together. In addition to the "prescribed" subjects in the basic training course, the "self-selected actions" displayed in the repertoire are the difficult points of assessment, and the dancers have shown their unique skills, and popular plays such as "White Haired Girl", "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", "Marco Polo" and "Swan Lake" have appeared one by one. "Thanks to Shangba! Bring us beauty with professionalism and sweat. "It's so beautiful! Save, read it over and over again, and learn along. Netizens watching the live broadcast left messages one after another.
"In the past, when performing in theaters, actors only had to face thousands of audiences, but now they have to withstand the critical eyes of millions of netizens, forcing them to tighten the strings of pursuing the peak of art at all times." Xin Lili told reporters that the use of "cloud assessment" in the special period has a remarkable effect, the evaluation content is different from previous years, and the difficulty coefficient has improved. They used the method of "practicing in the form of examination" to re-rehearse the important plays to be staged to prepare for the subsequent performances.
Deep cultivation: directing large traffic to a sustainable "cloud stage"
No one expected that February 17, 2020 would become the starting point of Shanghai Ballet's "ballet dancing with a mask" - after 14 days of isolation and rest, the dancers went into the practice room to resume the basic training. "Stop the performance and do not stop the work", the scene of sweating like rain training, let Wu Husheng still remember it vividly: "Even in the most difficult situation, he still insisted, still holding out hope and waiting for the day when the spring blossoms, that positive spirit infected everyone." Huawei's official micro-clip released a video of the Shanghai Ballet actors "Mask Ballet", which was translated into 10 languages and transmitted to more than 170 countries and regions. According to incomplete statistics, more than 66 million people around the world have watched the video, netizens from 25 countries have participated in the discussion, and more than 300 media have participated in the dissemination of the video, or written articles praising the fighting spirit of Chinese artists.
If you gather sudden and large traffic, you will lead to a longer-line, more sustainable "cloud stage". As a result, Shangba plans to move the "Ballet Public Welfare Open Class" at the end of each month from offline to "cloud", and broadcast live on platforms such as Wenhui Toutiao, attracting more than 2 million netizens to watch the first three courses alone. The new "Cloud Stage" has opened up a new way for Haipai Ballet to meet with the audience, and the "princes" and "princesses" on the stage have racked their brains and gradually explored several shortcuts to "sucking powder", adding rich content such as "ballet knowledge" and "dance appreciation". Wu Husheng, Qi Bingxue and other netizens practiced the basic skills of ballet together on the "cloud", attracting tens of thousands of fans to continue to pay attention.
In the deep cultivation and continuous innovation of Shanghai Ballet, the new Haipai Ballet "Cloud Stage" has gradually taken shape. Xin Lili and Wu Husheng created new dance programs such as "Angel's Smile" and "Sting", and took the lead in meeting the audience through the official account of Shanghai Ballet Douyin. The rehearsal site of the original ballet "Shining Red Star" was broadcast live on the official Douyin number, and tens of thousands of netizens entered the live broadcast room to watch the prologue group dance, "Ambush", "Yingshan Hong" and other wonderful dance segments.
In September 2020, Shanghai Ballet tried the whole "cloud performance" for the first time, and the modern ballet special "Bloom" was broadcast live to the Belgian audience, attracting more than 380,000 netizens at home and abroad. In September 2021, the "Same Round of Bright Moon - 2021 Brussels Chinese Cultural Center 'Celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day' Online Ballet Special Performance" was hosted by the Chinese Cultural Center in Brussels and strongly supported by the Chinese Embassy in Belgium, the Chinese Mission in the European Union, and the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism. Shanghai Ballet once again took to the cloud stage, allowing global audiences to approach Haipai Ballet under the same round of bright moon and taste Haipai classics together. The actors failed to leave the country due to the epidemic, but the spirit of "mask ballet" and original artistic works were transmitted to the world in the way of "appearance".
In the upcoming "Art Up and Forward Online Performance Week", Shanghai Ballet will interpret soothing and tense music with a unique vocabulary of toes, convey the power to dare to fight against fate, yearn for freedom and harmony, and warm the hearts of audiences through the clouds. "In the public's impression, ballet has always been mysterious, and the door will be closed when practicing. Although the requirements for ballet 'opening and straightening' are the same all over the world, each group will have its own unique method and standard of rehearsal. Xin Lili said: "Now through the Network, we have given the "trick" and "unique work" of Shangba to netizens, which has been understood and supported by many people, and more people have discovered and fallen in love with the beauty of ballet." ”
Author: Xuanjing
Edit: Jiang Fang
Editor-in-Charge: Xiaofang Xing
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.