Abstract: The dance poetry drama "Only This Green" - Dance Painting "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is an original work of art jointly produced by the Palace Museum, China Oriental Performing Arts Group and People's Network in 2021, and jointly produced by Yushang Hemei Culture Development Co., Ltd. and Beijing Sihai a Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. As soon as the show came out, it was a huge success. While the performance is successful, the analysis and study of this work is of great significance and value for the revision and improvement of the repertoire itself, the promotion of artistic innovation by state-owned art academies and troupes, and the creation of stage art masterpieces. This paper summarizes the in-depth and comprehensive analysis and discussion of "Only This Green" from the aspects of the selection and solution of the work, artistic creation, publicity and communication, and operation mode.
Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has attached great importance to literar General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Civilization, especially ideology and culture, is the soul of a country and a nation. No matter which country or nation does not cherish its own ideology and culture and loses the soul of ideology and culture, this country and this nation cannot stand up. "General Secretary Xi Jinping's advocacy of strengthening cultural self-confidence and promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture has produced a profound and far-reaching social impact and become the need of the times and the people." It is in this environment and atmosphere that China Oriental Performing Arts Group created and rehearsed the dance poetry drama "Only This Green" - the dance painting "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" (hereinafter referred to as "Only This Green").
In August 2021, after the successful premiere of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the play became a key support work for the "Stage Art Creation Project Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China", and won the annual funding project of the Beijing Municipal Culture and Art Fund (2021). In just half a year, the first round of touring more than 50 performances in 18 cities and regions across the country has not only been unanimously praised by domestic authoritative experts, but also conquered countless audiences, and it is difficult to find tickets everywhere. On New Year's Day 2022, "Only This Green" (excerpt) made a stunning appearance at the New Year's Eve Party of Station B; two months later, at the "2022 Spring Festival Gala" of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, it warmed the hearts of audiences across the country with a profound artistic conception derived from China's excellent traditional culture, and became an excellent case of successful "breaking the circle" of dance art works in 2021.
First, from the perspective of inheriting and developing China's excellent traditional culture, select and solve problems
Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has attached great importance to the inheritance and development of China's excellent traditional culture, always viewed excellent traditional culture from the perspective of the deepest spiritual pursuit of the Chinese nation, inherited excellent traditional culture from the perspective of national strategy, and innovated and developed excellent traditional culture from the perspective of promoting the modernization process of the Chinese nation, making it a fundamental force for realizing the "two hundred years" goal and the Chinese nation's great rejuvenation of the Chinese dream. To realize the inheritance and development of China's excellent traditional culture, we must fully explore and sort out the ancient and thick traditional culture, and closely integrate it with modern artistic means and modern aesthetic concepts.
As a pilot unit for the reform of the cultural system, China Oriental Performing Arts Group takes the national team of art production and the vanguard of institutional innovation as its basic positioning, focuses on the main business, takes creation as the core task, takes performance as the central link, and is committed to telling Chinese stories well with art. In terms of artistic creation, we will thoroughly implement the deployment requirements of the central government to deepen the reform of state-owned literary and art academies, adhere to the spirit of innovation throughout the entire process of artistic creation and production, continuously enhance the spiritual height, cultural connotation and artistic value of works, and enhance artistic expression. Give full play to the advantages of the main body of the enterprise, innovate the way of cooperation, break the inherent creative concept and operation mechanism of the state-owned theater group in the early stage of creativity, cross-border cultural and expo circles "Palace Museum" and media circle "People's Network", in the way of joint production, strong and powerful, jointly build, and strive to build "Only This Green" into a "model" of the stage art creation model in the new era of state-owned theater groups.
Set against the backdrop of the famous Song Dynasty painting "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", "Only This Green" adopts the narrative structure of interlacing time and space, follows the perspective of a modern Forbidden City researcher, and enters the inner world of wang Ximeng, a young painter thousands of years ago. The works are ingenious in the choice of themes, starting from the molding process of the painting, taking the main color "green" in the painting as the visual clue, and deeply exploring the production of seals, silk, pigments, pens, inks and other processes formed in the paintings. In terms of the structure of the work, zhou Liya and Han Zhen, two directors, have continuously explored and used the structure of the program, which is divided into seven chapters: exhibition volume, seal, singing silk, stone search, brush study, ink quenching, and painting, which are interpreted as a humanistic picture of the craftsmen of the country.
The main body depicted in the play is the image of the industrious and intelligent craftsmen of the Chinese nation throughout the ages, and the splendid and excellent history and culture are created by these ordinary laborers. The dance drama paints portraits of them, uses their stories to awaken sleeping cultural relics, evokes the most precious cultural memory and persistent belief of the Chinese nation, combines stage art with intangible cultural heritage, and conveys high respect for China's excellent traditional culture and its creators and inheritors. At the same time, it gives a richer and more profound connotation to the integration of culture and tourism in the context of the times.
Second, ingenuity and polishing, to create fine art
1. Creation and rehearsal
The total cycle of "Only This Green" is one and a half years. The play was established in April 2020, after more than half a year of preliminary preparations, a press conference was held at the Jianfu Palace of the Palace Museum on November 26, and the group was officially established in China Oriental Performing Arts Group on January 18, 2021. In March, we entered the rehearsal stage, which lasted for nearly five months. From August 1, it entered the synthesis of the Taihu Stage Art Center of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, and held a premiere press conference on the People's Network on August 18. It premiered three times at the National Centre for the Performing Arts from August 20 to 22.
The creation of the drama brings together the excellent resources of China Oriental Performing Arts Group and the elite talents of the industry, the main creative team has won the "Wenhua Award" twice, known as the "Twin Stars of Chinese Dance" Zhou Liya and Han Zhen as the chief choreographer, the domestic new generation of screenwriter Xu Junrui, the composer Lu Liang, who has won the film and television drama ratings champion for many works, as the main creator, and specially invited Gao Guangjian, stage director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, as the stage design, Ren Dongsheng, the top lighting designer in China, as the lighting design, and Yang Donglin, a representative figure of the domestic fashion circle, as the costume design. Jia Lei is the stylist, and the creative team formed by many powerful front-line creators leads the traditional aesthetic new fashion while ensuring the artistic quality. The repertoire is led by Zhang Han, Wang Zihan (specially invited), Meng Qingyang and Xie Suhao, bringing together an actor team composed of 42 dancers from our group, focusing on the new spiritual outlook of China's oriental in the new era.
At the same time, the crew set up a strong team of expert consultants: Feng Shuangbai, chairman of the Chinese Dancers Association, served as the art consultant, Zhang Xiaoling, president of the Academy of Fine Arts of The National Academy of Painting of China and the dean and doctoral tutor of the School of Fine Arts of East China Normal University, served as the aesthetic consultant, the famous composer Cheng Chi served as the music consultant, the experts of the Palace Museum were specially invited as cultural consultants, and the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism invited Qiu Qingnian, Wang Aijun, representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage such as Chinese painting paint, emblem ink, Xuan pen, shuanglin silk and other production techniques. Zhang Wennian and Zheng Xiaohua served as intangible cultural heritage consultants. The participation of these experts provided strong artistic and intellectual support for the creation of the play.
2. In-depth life and academic support
Although "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is a national treasure-level cultural relic, the main creative team has consulted a lot of materials and found that there are very few materials to record it in detail, and how to solve the problem is a problem that the main creative team has been thinking about for a long time in the early stage of creation. In order to better dance and paint "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and make the works show the aesthetic mood of the Song Dynasty, in the early stage of creation, the main creative team went to the Palace Museum to conduct a collection and investigation, conducted a detailed observation and study of cultural relics restoration, traditional painting technology, and the actual working status of cultural relics researchers, and conducted many academic exchanges with experts and scholars in the Forbidden City. During the rehearsal, experts from the Palace Museum went to the group and went deep into the rehearsal hall to popularize and exchange views with the main creators and actors on the knowledge related to "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains".
After determining the traditional Chinese crafts such as weaving silk, magic stone, ink making, and pen making in the play, with the strong help of the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the inheritors of national and provincial intangible cultural heritage were invited to enter the rehearsal hall to explain on the spot, teach the actors of the craftsmen in the play, and guide the props used for stage performances on the spot.
Academically, relying on the rich expert resources of the Palace Museum, the repertoire has organized various expert lectures, on-site observation, online Q&A and other popular science promotion activities. At the beginning of the rehearsal, Wang Xudong, a member of the party group of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the president of the Palace Museum, gave a special lecture on traditional Chinese culture for the crew. The Group specially hired Zeng Jun, director of the Calligraphy and Painting Department of the Palace Museum, Yu Ziyong, director of the Cultural Protection Science and Technology Department, Wang Zhongxu, a research librarian of the Calligraphy and Painting Department, and Yu Wentao, deputy research librarian of the Calligraphy and Painting Department, as cultural consultants, and the expert consultants repeatedly went deep into the rehearsal hall to exchange and discuss with the crew on the relevant content of "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains". The creative team explores the balance between classical dance and contemporary aesthetics in the scarce Song Dynasty dance materials, whether it is action choreography, stage presentation or music, costumes, and props design, all of which are exquisite and fascinating.
3. Stage presentation
The play takes the modern exhibition person to explore the humanistic value of this millennium classic as the perspective, and sets up the two main characters of "exhibition volume person" and "Xi Meng", and selects "green and green" as the typical visual identity of "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", using the interlaced structure of time and space for narrative. The plot is set in the "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is about to be exhibited, a Forbidden City researcher (exhibition volume person) travels through time and space, to a thousand years ago when Wang Ximeng is about to finish the manuscript, the audience follows the steps of the exhibition volume, following the outline of the chapter of "exhibition volume, asking seals, singing silk, searching for stones, learning pen, quenching ink, and entering the painting world" to enter Wang Ximeng's painting world...
With the "exhibition volume" as the core, under the support of stage, music and lighting, the audience seems to wander in a picture scroll rich in Song aesthetics. This immersive viewing experience is inseparable from breakthroughs and innovations in dance choreography, music design, stage lighting design and other aspects.
In the dance choreography, for the static characteristics of the painting to take static as the starting point, introverted, adduction as the keynote, designed a lot of modeling movements, such as waiting, looking at the moon, contemplation, single step, dangerous peak, lying stone, in the "only this green" expert seminar, there were experts said that the dance choreography in the play highlighted the quiet power, so that the play presented a "quiet" unique beauty; in terms of stage design, the multiple turntables designed on the ground with the unique use of multiple rotating devices in the air can accurately fit the "exhibition volume" In terms of music design, in order to create music with "Song temperament" and better create the atmosphere of each chapter of the play, the play will be the creation and production process of "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", such as the sound effects of traditional skills such as pen making and ink making, which creates a light, poetic and extremely rendered Song Dynasty aesthetic atmosphere for the play. The exquisite design, carving, and rigorous and exquisite history and culture of all aspects of the whole play have created an innovative expression of "Only This Green" based on "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" to shine traditional culture.
Third, media publicity and multi-channel communication to help successfully "break the circle"
1. Authoritative media publicity, expand the dissemination of the play
In terms of publicity, "Only This Green" relies on the huge domestic and foreign media resources of the People's Network to publicize and distribute omni-channel resources, expanding the dissemination and influence of the work. Before and after the premiere, the official media matrix of The People's Network, such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou and overseas platforms, was used to synchronously follow up the content promotion of "Only This Green". Before and after the premiere, the official Weibo of the Palace Museum released more than 5 million headline articles read, the cumulative exposure of the official media matrix of the People's Network exceeded 247 million+, and the Weibo topics created by it used young language and read more than 10 million. In China, it has successfully triggered more than 100 central and local media such as CCTV, Guangming Network, China News Network, Surging News, Sina Network, Sohu Network, NetEase News, China Culture Daily, Literature and Art Daily, China Art Daily, China Youth Daily, Beijing Daily, Learning Power, today's Headlines, etc., with a cumulative number of more than 100 articles.
2. Combine online and offline, and perform and broadcast at the same time
After the premiere of "Only This Green", China Oriental Performing Arts Group adopted a model of combining online and offline, performing and performing at the same time. During the first round of 18 cities and 50 tours across the country, in cooperation with the media, in October 2021, the excerpt "Only This Green" was "painted" on CCTV-3", in the form of "National Treasure × Literary and Artistic Re-creation", presenting the cross-time dialogue between Xi Meng and the audience, and the first round of broadcast received authoritative reports from state-level official media such as "People's Daily".
On December 31, "Only This Green" made a wonderful appearance at the B Station New Year's Eve Party, bringing a novel and unique "Green" dance segment to young audiences, and during the broadcast time period of "Only This Green", the real-time online viewing audience reached 180 million+. In the 12 hours of broadcasting, the single video of "Only This Green" was viewed more than 465,000 times, and the number of related topics read reached 31.207 million+. Within 7 days of broadcasting, the number of video views of a single episode reached 3.2 million+, and the number of Weibo-related topics read exceeded 65 million+ . The online "customized version" of the "only this green" dance section allows more young people to understand this dance poetry drama, on Weibo, netizens sighed after reading it: "The turntable of time and space is not full of civilized exchanges, every word is the inheritance of Chinese culture; the scrolls of history cannot finish the mountains and rivers of the motherland, and every stroke and painting is a magnificent landscape." ”
Chinese New Year's Eve night, "Only This Green" appeared on the CCTV General Station Tiger Year Spring Festival Gala, on the screen, through XR, holographic scanning and other cutting-edge scientific and technological means, presented a visual feast for the audience, showing the beauty of the integration of technology and art, once the program was broadcast, related topics began to frequently appear on sina Weibo, douyin and other platforms of hot search. The difficult "green waist" in the show also successfully went out of the circle, triggering a large number of professional dancers and enthusiasts to imitate and challenge. Since then, "Only This Green" has become a successful case of using literary and artistic works to disseminate traditional culture, and truly achieved cultural achievements in art and art inheritance culture.
After the Spring Festival, the main creative staff of "Only This Green" walked into the "ChunNi's Weekend Time" column to deeply interpret how the main creative team used the cross-border methods of dance, drama, music and intangible cultural heritage to show the aesthetics of the Song Dynasty, spread the spirit of national treasure protection, and inherit the beauty of China's five-thousand-year civilization in the interpretation from "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" to "Only This Green".
At the same time, "Only This Green" goes abroad and goes overseas in the way of "influence first", and through the diversified media publicity of the People's Network on overseas platforms, it has initially created the effect of "not seeing its people, hearing its voice first" in overseas markets.
In the process of continuous innovation, China Oriental Performing Arts Group combines China's excellent traditional culture with modern art, and reflects the aesthetic philosophy of ancient and modern times; organically combines traditional stage art with digital communication methods, promotes the common development of offline performances and online stage broadcasts, and enhances cultural dissemination; in terms of cultural value, lets the audience see the ancient and thick vitality of Chinese civilization and the endless cultural self-confidence of the Chinese nation. These experiences are of valuable practical significance for carrying forward traditional Chinese culture and literary and artistic creation in the new era.
Fourth, the production concept and model innovation to achieve "double effect" unification
The phenomenon that the dance poetry drama "Only This Green" successfully "broke the circle" three times and the first round of touring was widely discussed nationwide before the first round of touring stemmed from the innovation of production concepts and models.
1. Cross-border cooperation to help the success of the work
Jointly produced by the Palace Museum, China Oriental Performing Arts Group and People's Network, the works present the cultural relics "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" on the stage in the form of dance art, which is an innovative attempt by cultural institutions, art academies and authoritative media to practice exchanges and mutual learning, and to put "green landscapes" on the stage. The repertoire combines and integrates cross-border in terms of academics, creation and promotion, gives full play to the professional and resource advantages of their respective fields, and highlights the charm of elegant art and leads the artistic aesthetics of the new era through the cross-border integration of art disciplines such as dance and painting, and finds new ways and means for the dissemination and popularization of cultural relics. The successful premiere of the dance poetry drama "Only This Green" is an important practice for all parties to work together to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture and make the treasures of the museum "come alive" on the stage.
2. Innovate the operating model to achieve "double effect" unification
In terms of operation, "Only This Green" boldly introduces market capital in accordance with the enterprise operation model, unites cultural tourism and performing arts (Domain Hemei Culture Development Co., Ltd.), theater platform (a cultural development co., LTD. in the four seas of the Chinese Theater Line), precise positioning, scientific planning, adopts the mode of sales and production, realizes the first round of performance ticket sales rate of up to 100.4% (some shows appear oversold phenomenon), recovers costs and achieves profitability, and effectively achieves the dual effect of social and economic benefits.
V. Strengthen art criticism to enhance academic value
"Telling Chinese Stories Well with Art" is the corporate culture of China Oriental Performing Arts Group, and "Only This Green" is an excellent representative of China Oriental Performing Arts Group's "Telling Chinese Stories Well with Art" in the new era. In order to continuously summarize, revise and improve the artistic standard of "Only This Green", at the end of the first round of touring, China Oriental Performing Arts Group held the "Green and Green, Endless Mountains and Rivers - Expert Seminar on Dance poetry drama "Only This Green"", and invited Feng Shuangbai, Yu Ping, Zhang Xiaoling, Xu Rui, Zhang Ping, Jin Ruiguo, Zang Xiaoge, Liu Qiong, Zhao Chen, Wang Run, He Ying and other experts and scholars in dance, art, cultural exhibitions, intangible cultural heritage, media, operations and other aspects to provide suggestions and suggestions for "Only This Green", and put forward many valuable opinions and suggestions. At the same time, a number of experts' commentaries were sorted out and published in media and public accounts such as People's Daily, Guangming Daily, China Culture Daily, China Art News, etc., which not only expanded the influence of "Only This Green" but also enhanced the academic value of the play. As zhou Liya, the chief choreographer, said, in the process from the premiere to the tour, the creators of "Only This Green" firmly grasped the creative orientation of "people-centered", remembered to dance for the people, and constantly collected comments and feedback from the audience to make modifications and adjustments. There is no final version of This Green, only the best version.
Sixth, strengthen the construction of the industrial chain, and dig deep into the core values of cultural IP
"Only This Green" successfully "broke the circle", and China Oriental Performing Arts Group actively strengthened its industrial chain construction.
First, in cooperation with relevant enterprises to design and launch cultural and creative derivatives such as thermos cups, fragrance postcards, multi-layer folders, notebooks, silk scarf headbands, velvet bags, etc., which were loved by the majority of the audience at the performance site, expanding the influence of "Only This Green" and also obtaining corresponding economic benefits.
The second is to cooperate with a number of well-known domestic enterprises to launch "only this green" joint products, integrate culture into products, and empower brands with art. It has cooperated with COFCO Great Wall Wine to launch the Great Wall "Only This Green" joint wine; cooperated with Bamboo Leaf Green Tea To launch the "Only This Green" co-branded green tea; and launched the dance poetry drama "Only This Green" digital collection commemorative ticket with Barley and Lingjing Culture, promoting national culture with innovative technology and building more bridges to the national cultural IP for the audience. These cross-border cooperation in various industries has excavated the core value of the "only this green" cultural IP, endowed the "only green" brand with a deeper spiritual connotation and value concept, shaped a stronger Chinese cultural symbol, and explored the innovative development of traditional culture.
These active and effective explorations are based on the excellent traditional Chinese culture that has lasted for thousands of years, are the "root" and "soul" of the Chinese nation, and are also the rich nourishment for the development of China today. Realizing creative transformation and innovative development is the overall requirement for inheriting and carrying forward excellent traditional culture, and it is also the mission of literary and art workers.
VII. Conclusion
Through profound historical accumulation, China Oriental Performing Arts Group has brand advantages, creative advantages, platform advantages and institutional mechanism advantages. Entering a new era, China Oriental Performing Arts Group has always adhered to the creative concept of "people-centered", enhanced cultural consciousness, strengthened cultural self-confidence, and fully integrated with the times and the market, and achieved such a firm cultural self-confidence, artistic innovation and brave peak climbing work as "Only This Green". At the beginning of 2022, the second round of the national tour of "Only This Green" has long been full, and China Oriental Performing Arts Group is also working to cultivate B and C group actors, and considering the creation of overseas tour and resident versions.
In summary, the dance poetry drama "Only This Green" uses innovative dance vocabulary and art forms to complete the expression of excellent traditional culture, injects artistic concepts full of modern sense, and integrates with music, choreography, costumes, lighting and other stage effects, making "Only This Green" have a modern artistic novelty. Taking the road of marketization has promoted the continuous self-improvement of "Only This Green", injected it with long-lasting artistic vitality, and looks forward to this masterpiece, landing on the broader international stage, and driving China's excellent culture and art to explore innovation, and then create more wonderful works.