The power of faith is higher than life
——Heavy song and dance drama "Absolute Test" rambling
Xu Dali
River mountain Cui Wei, heroes are born. Zhang Luping is one of the heroes. The little girl, whose original name was Yu Jiaying, went to Yan'an at the beginning of her youth, and joined the Eighth Route Army and gained love. In 1939, the organization sent her to Chongqing, and she did not hesitate to abandon her family and enter the enemy camp alone, develop an underground organization to collect intelligence, and actually worked in the lair of Dai Kasa, the head of the military command's secret service. In the end, he was imprisoned because of the accidental mistakes of his comrades-in-arms, and in the face of threats and inducements, he never surrendered and did not change his ways, watching the imminent victory of the War of Resistance but sacrificing himself at the bloody dawn.
In fact, there have been many such stories in the past, and Li Xia in "The Eternal Wave" played by Mr. Sun Daolin is still fresh in his memory. There are also "Station 51", "Eighteen Years of enemy camp" and so on. What distinguishes Zhang Luping from other warriors on the hidden front is that 38 years after her death, the martyr status of her and her comrades-in-arms was confirmed by the testimony of Marshal Ye Jianying and Comrade Chen Yun, and their souls and remains were able to rest in peace. It is really a long and difficult time, if the heroes have known the Nine Springs, I am afraid that they will have "poured downpours of tears".
The choreographers of the Chongqing Song and Dance Troupe keenly grasped the unique experience of martyr Zhang Luping and created and rehearsed this unique dance drama. The story is extremely refined, the scene is extremely shocking, the stage beauty is extremely dazzling, the dance art and the character story are magically integrated, and the details and emotions are integrated through the exquisite and delicate dance vocabulary of the actors and the sublimation of the divine, entering the ultimate free space aesthetic realm, making people see the scenery in front of their eyes and make waves in their hearts.
Modern Chinese dance drama has made great progress with the development of economy and society since the beginning of this century, whether it is the diversification and internationalization of dance vocabulary, or the innovation of dance costumes in the story structure of dance drama festivals, the author thinks that there has been an earth-shaking transformation and renewal. Many years ago, I also had the experience of song and dance performance, and in today's vision, that is only the beginning of the flood era. In "Absolute Test", a nine-meter-high platform is built with a steel frame, plus six ice screens combined projection to show the "bundled house" stacked trellis house in the Chongqing Anti-Japanese War era, and the people dance in their space. This Chongqing flavor design runs through the entire dance drama, such as the curved streets and alleys that cannot be seen at a glance and cannot be walked on one foot, which immediately reminds people of the eighteen ladders and mountain city lanes built along the mountains today and the style still exists; such as the lively hot pot shops, the hot pot shops with fireworks, the "group food dance" of the shopkeepers and diners, and the "Dongzi hot pot" born during the War of Resistance Against Japanese bombing. Those noisy and harsh sounds, the luxurious scenes of red wine and green, the gentlemen in suits and leather shoes and the dancers wearing red and green clothes, suddenly have a historical replay of "the front is tight, the rear is tight"... Chongqing elements, anti-war elements and even Sichuan opera elements, drama elements and other concentrated display, giving this play a local color and regional genes, is the ingenuity of the choreographer. Because of this, our heroine Zhang Luping also has a place to play.
"Absolute Test" breaks the stylized expression of the old drama, using flashbacks, interludes, dreams, time and space travel techniques in literature, as well as the usual montage techniques used in the film, to make an exaggerated interpretation of Zhang Luping's encounters and moods in different situations in different time and space, and the actor Zhang Yin, this outstanding Chongqing girl is a high-achieving student of the Shanghai Theater Academy Dance Academy, just burst out from the heart with extraordinary passion and exquisite dance skills, one move and one style, one smile, one leap and one jump, one turn and one spin. In one fell swoop, all came from the bottom of the heart from the rhythm, and Zhang Luping's difficult situation on the hidden front and the truth could not be confessed, although young, she adhered to the complex mentality of faith as the basis, and showed it bit by bit through the dance vocabulary, which was actually the ingenuity of the choreographer and dancer!
It is said that the big husband easily does not shed tears. There are a few places that bring me to tears. Accepting the task is about to leave, how can the little couple be willing to leave it? Zhang Luping is exactly eighteen years old, and her husband's double dance is like a hundred knots, lingering and compassionate, and silky like lacquer. This is to enter the devil's cave, life and death are vast, the child in his arms is innocent, and he will be separated from the world from now on. Who says communists are selfless? Revolutionary ideals are higher than heaven! Another scene in Chongqing, dressed in a beautiful dress in a luxurious dance hall of a high-end hotel "social flower" Zhang Luping, met a girlfriend Mei Jie in the Yan'an era, acquaintance but can not recognize, want to recognize but can not recognize, the entanglement in the heart is like a fire burning. Mei Jie thought that she had defected to the enemy and regarded it as an ugly vendetta. Even though both of them were caught in prison by the enemy, they were also Communists, because they had to strictly abide by the discipline of underground work, they still could not pour out their hearts to untie their knots, and the pain that was always entangled in their hearts until the end of their lives...
If the dance drama "Du Fu" has created a precedent for the modernization of chongqing's historical dance drama, "Absolute Test" is also the forerunner of the revolutionary theme dance drama. Forefarthers include Shanghai's "The Eternal Airwaves", etc., and "Absolute Test" undoubtedly makes up for the gap in dance dramas of Chongqing's local historical heroes. We have the Sichuan opera "Sister Jiang", the Peking opera "Zhang Luping", the drama "Survivor", "Red Rock Soul" and so on, and now "Absolute Test" has opened a brilliant and dazzling hero flower, this spring flower will flourish for a long time and become another classic in the dance drama industry.
I have only watched this drama once, and my understanding is not thorough and comprehensive. Screenwriter Ding Wei's words were very inspiring to me: Chongqing's unique three-dimensional urban landscape is impressive, so this is also reflected in the dance drama. The play uses the ice screen combination projection to show the staggered sense of Chongqing houses, and also uses the stage installation of "walking in the air" and the stairs with different heights and shapes to combine into a new shape. Almost the entire play takes place in the air, with the actors dancing on stairs several meters high. Such a three-dimensional stage installation brings challenges to dance performances, enriches the performance space, and is more in line with the landform of Chongqing.
The story background of "Absolute Test" is not too far away from now, so it is different from the well-known award-winning dance drama "Du Fu" of the Chongqing Song and Dance Troupe. In the choice and expression of dance forms, this drama combines multiple dance types such as modern dance, ethnic dance, national standard, street dance, etc., and the plot rhythm is also relatively close, which is closer to the aesthetics and preferences of young audiences in today's era.
The purpose and intention of the choreographer of this drama are also commendable. They said that "Absolute Test" is no longer a dance in the traditional sense, but absorbs the vocabulary and essence of other dance genres and even world dances. The choreographer has set up such a "spiritual connotation" for this play: the degree to which the power of loyal faith can be reached is the ultimate torture that defines the value of a person's survival. Choosing faith requires conscious strength; insisting on faith and letting go of oneself requires strong personality strength; faith under the door of life and death is unchanged, and more powerful will power is needed; generous death, even if no one understands, no one sympathizes, no one praises, still goes alone, needs extraordinary soul power. Zhang Luping embodied this extraordinary soul power. What she faces can be said to be an absolute test, beyond the ordinary generosity and righteousness, is the most extreme explosion of human brilliance and faith power in the absolute loneliness.
It's all about taking the pulse points.
Li Hua, an expert in party history, once commented on Zhang Luping: She was newly married and separated, hid her name, and successfully broke into the military unification organs, turning herself into a "traitor" in the eyes of comrades, comrades-in-arms, and even her husband. In the face of absolute loneliness that no one knows, it is better to sacrifice one's life than to keep secrets, and it is better to be humiliated than to reveal one's identity, and one's life is forever fixed at the age of 24. She is an absolute loyalty who faces an "absolute test" that transcends ordinary "generosity and righteousness", embodies extraordinary "soul power", and demonstrates the spirit of sacrifice and dedication of communists.
Critic Lu Linfeng said that the dance drama "Absolute Test" is a dance of the revolutionary's soul, the drama takes the revolutionary's psychological activities as the narrative clue, shows the inner plight of underground workers in a unique way, and interprets the revolutionary's spirit of dedication and sacrifice. "Absolute Test" cuts from the perspective of individual, life and women, breaks through the genre narrative of revolutionary heroes, and exudes strong female care, life concern, and universal values, which is a rare innovation and attempt of Chongqing stage art in recent years.
There are many opinions, and they all praise "her" well. This "she" is not only Zhang Luping, but also a participant in the dance drama "Absolute Test".
I think that Zhang Luping withstood the "absolute test" because the power of faith is higher than life. The choreographers and performers of the dance drama "Absolute Test" have also withstood this "absolute test" because of the power of faith, and they all regard this as a brilliant scene in life.