Acrobatic drama "skill" and "art" cross-border integration enrich stage performances

The picture shows the stills of the acrobatic drama "Hua Butterfly" by Xu Jianmei (People's Vision)

Acrobatic drama consciously breaks through the limitations of acrobatic "clumsy narrative and lyricism", extends the tentacles of creation to drama, and uses the narrative advantage of drama to write a magnificent people's epic.

The creative transformation and innovative development of contemporary acrobatic dramas have greatly expanded the performance space of acrobatic art, improved the character portrayal ability that traditional acrobatics are not good at, and enriched today's stage performances while giving a new vitality to acrobatics.

Acrobatics are the art of constantly pushing the limits of the human body. With the exploration of generations of acrobats, the innovation of acrobatic ontology techniques is becoming more and more difficult, and acrobatic innovation is constantly looking for new breakthrough points. In 1994, China's first acrobatic theme party "Golden Southwest Wind" was staged, connecting acrobatic skills with the theme of "national style", paying attention to the comprehensive use of lighting and sound in Fuhua Road, and transitioning from technique-centered to character shaping in performance. In 2004, the acrobatic drama "Swan Lake" combined the classic ballet "Swan Lake" with the acrobatic program, opening the era of "drama" of acrobatics. Compared with the theme party, the acrobatic drama strengthens the beginning and end of the story, the integrity of the theatrical structure, the complex character relationship and emotional conflict.

In the past 10 years, almost all acrobatic troupes with a certain scale have created acrobatic dramas. Acrobatic drama consciously breaks through the limitations of acrobatic "clumsy narrative and lyricism", extends the tentacles of creation to drama, and writes a magnificent people's epic with the help of the narrative advantage of drama, and its experience in creative transformation and innovative development is worth summarizing.

"Technique" is integrated into the "drama", and the plot is expressed with skills

An excellent acrobatic drama must first highlight the acrobatic art itself, that is, the key skills. The laying, series and display of techniques have their own internal structure and unique starting and bearing and turning. At the same time, only "skills" are difficult to become "dramas", and the simple listing and superposition of "skills" is easy to dissolve the literary attributes of "dramas" and become a platter of acrobatic programs. That is to say, acrobatic dramas must not only highlight the "skills", but also develop a logical plot, so that the "skills" serve the "drama". Allowing "technology" and "drama" to blend and complement each other is the difficulty and key to the innovation and change of acrobatic dramas.

Use the plot to renew acrobatic skills and create an artistically appealing stage. Wu Zhengdan and Wei Baohua are the pioneers of the acrobatic technique "Ballet on the Shoulder", which was first used in the acrobatic "Oriental Swan". In the new acrobatic drama "Hua Di", this classic acrobatic technique has a new connotation. In the play, when Wu Zhengdan stands on Wei Baohua's shoulder with one foot and rotates lightly and softly, the romantic butterfly image is interpreted in a fascinating way, pushing the whole play to a climax. The acrobatic drama "Reed Green Cauliflower Yellow" tells the story of the New Fourth Army establishing the Central China Branch of Lu Xun Art College in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, and leading Lu Yi teachers and students to stubbornly resist Japan. In the play, a large number of traditional acrobatic techniques that have not been seen on the stage for a long time, such as "fiber plate pedaling drum" and "small whip empty bamboo", are used, which not only gives new vitality to traditional skills, but also sets off the spirit of Lu Yi teachers and students who are full of vitality, high morale, and sacrifice their lives and forget their deaths. In particular, when showing the heroic deeds of 9 female students of Lu Yi, the silk hanging stunt is used, and the shocking scene with a rainbow of momentum is extremely artistically appealing.

Creatively giving new interpretations to familiar acrobatic techniques, enriching the expressiveness and lighting up the plot. In recent years, the newly created large-scale realistic acrobatic drama "Call 4921" uses image language to tell the heroic deeds of father and son and two generations of policemen. When the flood hit, a young mother and baby were trapped upstairs, and the protagonist of the police force fell into the flood with the young mother after struggling to save the baby. At this time, the lights are completely dimmed. When the stage lit up again, the building disappeared, the sound of running water was heard in the dappled light and shadow, and the bottomless flood was displayed in front of the audience. In the performance of "Underwater Courage to Save Young Mothers", the performers wrapped the leather strip hanging from the height around their wrists and held them in their hands, took off the ground, and hoisted them in the air with their hands to make various thrilling movements. In order to show the danger that the characters may be washed away at any time, the two actors detour between dance style and acrobatic skills with the "abnormal state" of dance non-dance and drama non-drama, this difficult performance is more in line with the needs of the plot, and the "skill" is integrated into the "drama" to take a solid step.

With different plots, different situations, different props, and the meaning of acrobatic skills is often vastly different. It can be said that the narrative nature of the drama in acrobatic drama gives the skill a rich humanistic connotation; the flexibility and diversity of the skill vocabulary further promotes the deep integration of "skill" and "drama". For example, the traditional props and techniques of "rolling ring" are rubber rafts in the storm in the acrobatic drama "Bridge And Home", showing the indomitable spirit of people's struggle against nature; in the acrobatic drama "Battle shanghai", it is a witness to revolutionary love. Techniques are both deeply involved in the narrative and help to present unexpected artistic effects, which is the charm of acrobatic dramas.

Find out the theme, innovate the form, and enhance the realm of artistic expression

Constantly tapping the potential of human body function, acrobatics are born with thrilling, difficult and kit-chi aesthetic characteristics, good at portraying heroism, showing the heroic spirit of daring to conquer difficulties. From this point of view, finding the theme that can best highlight the "dangerous" and "difficult" characteristics of acrobatics often makes the new acrobatic drama more effective with half the effort. Military themes, public security themes, and industrial themes are all areas where acrobatic dramas can show their skills. After finding the correct theme, you can also learn from the sister art and do a good job in transplanting and adapting the repertoire.

Taking the opportunity to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the creation of acrobatic dramas with related themes began to emerge in a concentrated manner. For example, the revolutionary historical themes of "Reconnaissance of Crossing the River", "Battle of Shanghai", "Heroic Tiger Guts", "Railway Hero", such as "Bridge and Home", which tells the construction process of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, "Call 4921", which shows the deeds of the people's police in sacrificing themselves to save others, and so on. Compared with the film and television drama "Railway Guerrilla", the acrobatic drama "Railway Hero" focuses on the thrilling performance of guerrilla warfare on the stage, which is full of artistic appeal and shock. For example, in the scene where the guerrillas rush to transport supplies, the acrobats complete the performance through "parkour" on the high-speed moving train and without safety auxiliary measures, which not only highlights the unique "surprise", "danger" and "strangeness" of the acrobatic drama, but also intuitively shows the fearless spirit and extraordinary skills of the railway guerrillas.

Acrobatics are also the art of creating miracles and unleashing the imagination. In addition to the heroic theme, acrobatic dramas are also suitable for expressing historical and cultural legends with strong romantic colors. For example, the acrobatic drama "Hundred Birds" is based on the myths and legends of ancient times. Folk dances such as phoenix dance and bronze encouragement are combined with acrobatic techniques to create a fantasy and colorful art world. "The Sun on the Rock" is based on the rock paintings of Helan Mountain in Ningxia, with iconic symbols such as "Sun" and "Rock Sheep" as the character archetype, conveying rich emotions through ancient characters, praising human courage and wisdom, and giving modern meaning to ancient stories.

At present, acrobatic dramas also rely on scientific and technological means, focusing on mobilizing high-tech stage means such as sound and photoelectric digitization and multimedia imaging technology to build an immersive acrobatic aesthetic space. For example, in the acrobatic drama "Bridge home", when the builders design the drawings in front of the stage, the background screen behind flashes a huge design drawing, and the drawing scene on the stage is also active, like a virtual space with a sense of technology. In the ever-changing scenery, the acrobats imitate the drawing symbols and make different forms of acrobatic skill combinations, making the whole stage more tense. The acrobatic drama "Nine Colored Deer" uses holographic projection technology and stage mirror devices and other scientific and technological means to refract wonders such as "dreamland" and "Miyagi" on the ever-changing mirror surface, making people feel as if they have walked into Dunhuang murals.

The creative transformation and innovative development of contemporary acrobatic dramas have greatly expanded the performance space of acrobatic art, improved the character portrayal ability that traditional acrobatics are not good at, and enriched today's stage performances while giving a new vitality to acrobatics. Facing the future, we look forward to the future of acrobatic dramas to continue to innovate in inheriting excellent traditions and digging deep into the connotation of the repertoire, and dedicate more excellent works to the people. (Chai Ying)

Draft: Zhao Kairu

Source: People's Daily