(East to ask) Chinese dance world "Gemini": "Only this green" "out of the circle" charm from where comes from?
China News Service Haikou, April 1 Title: China's Dance World "Gemini Stars": Where Does the Charm of "Out of the Circle" of "Only This Green" Come From?
Author Wang Xinli Fu Yuqun
Based on the famous ancient Chinese painting "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", the dance poetry drama "Only This Green" began its first round of national tour in August 2021, with more than 50 performances and rave reviews. After the debut of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 2022, the drama has aroused heated discussion at home and abroad. The second round of the national tour kicked off in Haikou in early March. From the original two performances, three additional performances to 10 performances, it is still difficult to find a ticket.
"Only This Green" began its second round of national tour in Haikou on March 3 this year, and was warmly welcomed by the audience in Coconut City. China News Service reporter Luo Yunfei photographed
Why can "Only This Green" be so "fire", and what is the charm that attracts the audience? Zhou Liya and Han Zhen, chief choreographers and directors of "Only This Green", known as the "Twin Stars" of the Chinese dance world, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Question" to reveal the creative process behind this phenomenon-level dance poetry drama.
The interview transcript is summarized below:
China News Service: What is the reason why the dance poetry drama "Only This Green" has generated a warm response at home and abroad?
Zhou Liya: The hot performance of "Only This Green" reflects the contemporary audience's love for China's excellent traditional culture. We are living in an era of cultural self-confidence. In such an era background, it has become a carrier of this cultural self-confidence.
Contemporary people's hobbies are diverse, and they are willing to spend more energy on the things they love. We found that many viewers took the initiative to share their experience of watching the drama online, and were even surprised that the audience's research on the work was so subtle, so they have been collecting audience feedback and modifying and adjusting the work. There is no final version of This Green, only the best version. Its charm lies in the romantic two-way rush between the traditional Chinese culture that feeds our souls and the vast audience who love this land deeply.
China's excellent traditional culture is an important part of human civilization. Overseas audiences watched from the Internet and expressed their love for "Only This Green", reflecting the common value orientation of people around the world in pursuing beauty.
China News Service reporter: "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is a static painting, how to generate the creative motivation of "dance" from it?
Zhou Liya: The inspiration for the creation of "Only This Green" came from Han Zhen and I watching the exhibition "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" at the Palace Museum a few years ago. The popularity of the exhibition reflects the people's strong demand and desire for China's excellent traditional culture.
The audience visited the "Map of a Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" at the Palace Museum in Beijing. Photo by Liu Xianguo, China News Service
"A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is one of the top ten famous paintings in China, and the Northern Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng painted it in half a year when he was 18 years old. Different from the traditional ink painting in black and white tones, the painting is named after the two mineral pigments painted with litholite green, and the brilliant turquoise tones are intertwined to depict the splendid splendor of thousands of miles of rivers and mountains. This is the source of the "green" in "Only This Green".
Part of "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains". Photo by Du Yang, a reporter of China News Service
Through the Italian-style creative technique and unique choreography, we created "Only This Green", and the audience slowly tasted the aesthetic charm of China's excellent traditional culture.
China News Service reporter: General dance works are called dance dramas, why is "Only This Green" called dance poetry dramas?
Zhou Liya: Dance poetry drama is a new concept we proposed, and "Only This Green" is an innovative rehearsal. Previously, dance dramas were mostly promoted by story logic. Our first attempt was to capitalize, downplay the narrative, and advance it with emotional logic. Focusing on traditional aesthetics, using dance language to express the freehand of poetry and the blank space of painting, and finally achieve the spiritual resonance between the work and the audience.
We use multiple perspectives to show the essence of paintings: one is to travel through the millennium and view the beauty of thousands of miles of rivers and mountains in a historical dimension; the second is to see the traditional Chinese crafts behind the paintings through the paintings; the third is to present the thinking of cultural and cultural workers from the perspective of "exhibiting people".
China News Service: Have you thought that the work will "go out of the circle"? What traditional Chinese cultural ideas does it present?
Han Zhen: When we created it, we didn't expect it to "go out of the circle". For thousands of years, traditional Chinese literature, poetry, song and painting have told contemporary people that Chinese full of poetry. For this, we have always been confident when creating.
Chinese culture has different temperaments in different eras. One key word in my understanding of Song Dynasty culture is "gentleness." The people of the Song Dynasty had a kind of introverted and implicit strength.
"Only This Green" shows the quiet and elegant state of the ancients. We put a lot of effort into the details. For example, the dance movements and the demeanor of the actors, diluting the emotions and showing the oriental gentleness; the towering bun and the blue-and-green costumes are layered freehand expressions, which make people shine, and the paintings can really "live" on the stage.
The picture shows the stills of the performance of "Only This Green". Courtesy of the performer.
China News Service: The final subtitle of the play" pays tribute to the craftsmen and guardians who have silently dedicated themselves to the inheritance and development of traditional culture, what message does it hope to convey to the audience?
Han Zhen: "Only This Green" takes the chapters of "Exhibition Scroll, Asking Seals, Singing Silk, Searching for Stones, Learning Brushes, Quenching Ink, and Entering Paintings" as the outline, telling the story of a young researcher of the Forbidden City who "crossed" back to the Northern Song Dynasty and "peeked" at the experience of the painter Wang Ximeng in creating "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" from the perspective of "exhibiting volumes".
"Only This Green" is a tribute to the excellent traditional Chinese culture. Invite the Palace Museum as a co-producer. In the process of creation, with the reverence for traditional Chinese culture, the reverence for the national treasures passed down from generation to generation, and the reverence for stage art, we have artistically presented the non-hereditary inheritors such as seal carvers, silk weavers, grinding stone people, pen makers, and ink makers who contain the wisdom of traditional handicrafts behind the paintings. These craftsmen, including cultural relics workers, are the inheritors of traditional Chinese culture. Thanks to their best efforts, we are able to see the cultural treasures of a thousand years ago.
A citizen enjoys the "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" set in front of the northwest corner tower of the Palace Museum in Beijing. Photo by China News Service reporter Hou Yu
China News Service: How should modern literary and artistic works draw creative inspiration from traditional Chinese culture?
Han Zhen: Ai Qing has a poem, "Why do I always have tears in my eyes?" Because I love this land deeply. "I think that the audience's love for "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is a kind of praise for the magnificent mountains and rivers of the country in their minds. In the creation, we put this feeling in it, reflecting the beauty of traditional Chinese poetry and painting. This is the spiritual nourishment given by traditional Chinese culture to contemporary people.
If you can accommodate the hills and valleys in your heart, you can only meet the mountains and rivers under the pen. Traditional Chinese culture is an "endless collection" that gives us inexhaustible artistic materials. For art creators, we must base ourselves on our own, based on self-confidence, with a pair of eyes of discovery, to excavate traditional Chinese culture, and at the same time to create with a sincere heart.
In previous years, dance dramas ranked fifth and sixth in the national theater market, and last year they rose to second, which shows that our dance industry has worked hard to create works, so that the audience feels sincere, so they are willing to enter the theater to watch.
"Only This Green" interprets the green soul of Wang Ximeng's pen. "Green" is the embodiment of nature, the embodiment of culture, and a bridge connecting people and time and space. Respecting history, these traditional cultures flowing in the blood of Chinese will have the strength to reach the heart, and then trigger the empathy resonance of the collective. From this we see the cultural self-consciousness and cultural self-confidence of today's Chinese.
China News Service: You two have choreographed and directed dance dramas such as "Du Fu", "Mulan", and "Marco Polo", how to reconcile the viewing needs of Chinese and Western audiences with different cultural backgrounds?
Han Zhen: In recent years, there have been many traditional cultural works that have "gone out of the circle" with fire. We've talked to some of our investment partners who want us to make a work that westerners can accept. The music of "Only This Green" alternately presents the charm of Chinese and Western music culture. In addition to using guqin, guzheng, zither, flute, pipa, etc. to present the feelings of the Song Dynasty people, clarinets and cello are also used to show the emotions of modern people. This is also a new exploration.
I believe that if the understanding of traditional Chinese culture is profound enough, the work can present the life thinking of the Chinese nation hidden in literature, history and philosophy, which will be a wonderful dialogue between Chinese and Western cultures. The other party will feel the power of the inside out from the work, enough to break down the cultural barriers between China and the West. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Zhou Liya, editor-in-chief of "Only This Green", was interviewed by the media in Haikou on March 3 this year. China News Service reporter Luo Yunfei photographed
Zhou Liya, graduated from the Choreographer Department of Beijing Dance Academy, is now a young choreographer of China Oriental Performing Arts Group, a national first-class choreographer, and the chief examiner of Beijing Dance Academy. He has won awards such as the 13th and 14th Dance Drama "Wenhua Choreographer Award".
Han Zhen, editor-in-chief of "Only This Green", was interviewed by the media in Haikou on March 3 this year. China News Service reporter Luo Yunfei photographed
Han Zhen, graduated from the Choreographer Department of Beijing Dance Academy, is now a young choreographer of China Oriental Performing Arts Group. Dance drama works have won the 14th, 15th and 16th "Wenhua Award", the 14th "Wenhua Choreographer Award", the 12th and 13th Spiritual Civilization Construction "Five One Project" Award, the "National Stage Art Quality Project Award" and other awards.