Author: Feng Shuangbai
In the past 10 years, Chinese dance has undergone profound and tremendous changes. In the face of unprecedented changes in a century, on the journey of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, China's contemporary dance art has made unprecedented historical progress. Over the past 10 years, a group of outstanding dancers have worked hard to create a number of well-known outstanding dance works, completed the large-scale cultural evenings entrusted by the party and the state again and again, handed over carefully written answers to the people, and achieved gratifying artistic achievements.
Concentrate your energy and create a new image of dance in the new era
In the past 10 years, the most striking spectacle on China's contemporary dance scene has been the emergence of a number of new images that are eye-catching. People were pleasantly surprised to find that some never-before-seen dance art images appeared on the historical stage for the first time, adding distinctive characteristics of the times to the Hundred Flowers Garden of Literature and Art with Chinese characteristics. For example, in the field of the creation of revolutionary historical themes, we see revolutionary pioneers who have made great sacrifices and contributions to the revolution in the history of the 100 years since the founding of the Party. For example, in the first spy war themed dance drama "The Undying Airwave", the underground workers of the party express the eternity of love and faith, and in the first dance drama "Cavalry", which reflects the combat life of the first cavalry unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the heroes sing triumphant songs and live and die together with war horses. In the field of realistic theme creation, we have seen the first large-scale industrial-themed dance drama "Red Flag" in which the new Chinese generation of working class selflessly dedicated their youth and blood, the first dance drama "Iron Man" showing the oil front, Wang Jinxi's heroic story was displayed by ballet art, the first dance drama "Heavenly Road" reflecting the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway laid out the poetic sacredness and vastness, and the first ballet "Dunhuang" depicting Chinese cultural relics protection workers stirred up the echoes of the long civilization and the times. In addition, for the first time, we also saw environmental protection workers with the characteristics of the new era, the dance drama "Crane Soul" has people echoing the soul of nature, and the dance drama "Crested Ibis" has reflections on the times; We also saw the children of migrant workers for the first time, and the children's dance "Parents I Miss You" was touching; For the first time, we also saw the most beautiful angels of the anti-epidemic front in the group dance "Spring Meeting Come"; For the first time, I saw the touching village officials in the battle against poverty in the group dance "A New Secretary Came to the Village". In the field of historical theme creation, a group of historical and cultural celebrities appeared on the stage of contemporary China for the first time, dancing the power of 5,000 years of oriental civilization: Confucius, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Dongpo, Guan Gong, Wang Zhaojun, Cangyang Gyatso, Qiu Jin, Zhu Ziqing, etc. appeared one after another, which was dizzying. In 2022, Wang Ximeng in the dance drama "Only This Green Green" joined hands with the wonderful woman "Green Green" to add another dazzling stroke to the list of characters on the dance stage.
So many firsts and so many new images present some distinctive artistic characteristics of the era:
First of all, the spiritual dimension of these dance images is fuller and deeper. The underground workers of the Party held high the spiritual torch shining in the dark night, and the heroes who died generously raised their noble heads in the rain of bullets... The dance works that sing the main theme not only have fearless people who dare to sacrifice, but also show the spiritual power of daring to win, and many times, the Li Xia who knocked "farewell, I love you" on the airwaves will make people can't help but think of Gorky's proud and soaring petrel.
Secondly, the personality of these dance images is more novel and unique, and the background of real life is more distinct. In the new era of new dance, there are often unexpected ordinary laborers, from which the audience can appreciate the nobility of the ordinary, and feel the great power of the characters from the most inconspicuous characters. Tibetan young men and women happily build their hometowns in "Fight Aga", two Yi brothers push each other for rare reading opportunities in "Red Scarf", Yi girls living barefoot experience the novelty of wearing shoes for the first time in "Friendship and Friendship", Mongolian old people happily use their mobile phones to "check in" for group photos in "Grandfathers", and Uyghur boys enjoy incomparably moving warmth and peace in "Magati in the Sun"... These dance images break the shackles of the conceptual symbols of the false big void, making the works more weighty, more textured, and more flavorful.
Thirdly, these dance images are more colorful, diverse and eclectic. In the past 10 years, the main theme and diversified relationship of dance art creation have been better coordinated, and the rich negatives of dance art images have truly shown a hundred flowers, reflecting the vigorous vitality of the great era. If you look at "Haha, Tortoise and Rabbit Race" from the fairy tale world in children's dance creation, "Promised Land" taken from children's dream world, "White Clouds and Red Sun" from the dreams of Naxi children, "Rush Forward" from the inner growth desire of kindergarten children, and "Little Champion Dream" from the children's dance driven by the adult world, you will even more sigh at the new atmosphere of the new dance image of China Dance Art Garden in the past 10 years.
These new dance images are the best response to the call for a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, an artistic reflection of a vigorous development situation, and show the artistic passion and creative power of contemporary dancers under the impetus of the new era.
Looking back at the progress of dance in the past 10 years, if we look at it in a broader historical dimension, we can clearly see the most precious historical driving force of the changes in the new era. Looking at the ebb and flow on China's contemporary dance stage since the reform and opening up, if the emergence of the national dance drama "Silk Road Flower Rain" in 1979 and the men's solo dance "Hope" and "Ocean Waves" in the first national dance competition in 1980 marked a starting point for the historical reform of contemporary Chinese dance, then in the more than 30 years up to 2012, Chinese dance has generally experienced the rehearsal trend of classic dance drama works in the 1980s, the tide of antique music and dance, the tide of style dance, and the exploration and breakthrough of traditional classical dance styles After the 1990s, dance changed track and breakthrough in the tide of market economy, and after the 21st century, Chinese modern dance surpassed the awakening and self-identity analysis of imitation of the West, and the self-awareness and tailor-made of the Chinese ballet school. At the same time, after the reform and opening up, various forms of literary and artistic ideas continued to pour in, showing a superimposed interaction, and in the historical turning period, there were inevitably several problems in the field of literature and art. For example, under the influence of the impetuous wind of literary and artistic creation, some works simply pursue sensory stimulation, only box office and traffic; Some works are simply funny, play gimmicks, and even do not hesitate to "entertain to death"; More works distort history, dissolve justice, and lose the most precious soul guiding role of literature and art in the pursuit of fame and profit.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, state leaders have made a series of important expositions on literary and artistic work, and pointed out that the Chinese spirit is the soul of socialist literature and art; The purpose of literary and artistic creation is to guide people to find the source of thought, the source of strength, and the source of happiness; The highest state of art is to move people's hearts and let people's souls undergo baptism; Literature and art is Bacon's work to forge the soul, and it has a unique role in cultivating and carrying forward the core socialist values, which has profoundly changed the atmosphere of the entire literary and artistic field, and also pointed out the way forward for the majority of dance workers. Under the conditions of the new era, dancers strive to think about how to inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, carry forward the Chinese aesthetic spirit, how to use dance language to show the Chinese aesthetic style, how to express Chinese's thoughts, emotions and aesthetics with Chinese unique body language, and how to strive to create excellent works with both the characteristics of the times and distinctive Chinese style, thus achieving an unprecedented historical breakthrough.
Work together to build a new pattern of dance in the new era
In the past 10 years, holding high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, "self-confidence, self-improvement, integrity and innovation" and "vigorous and courageous forward" have become the strongest voice of the times. In the field of literature and art, the mainstream socialist ideology has become an important guiding force for the construction of social ideology and formed a strong guide for literary and artistic creation. The grand goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has stimulated the infinite creativity of contemporary dancers, the people-centered creative orientation has become the guiding light of dance art, and the beautiful blueprint of the construction of a cultural power has shown a new pattern of multi-party efforts to jointly build a new era dance picture.
In the past 10 years, from the perspective of dance art thought, the most remarkable trend of dance creation has been the emergence of a large number of realistic works and their extraordinary achievements. For a long time, the dance industry has believed in the "rule" that dance is better than lyricism and clumsy in narrative, so the creation of realistic dance was once regarded as a huge problem. In the new era, "strengthening the creation of realistic themes" was written into the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, pointing out the direction for dance creation. For example, China has won a comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty, how can dance art profoundly reflect this great miracle in the history of human poverty reduction? The group dance "Far Mountains" reflects the desire for knowledge of out-of-school children in rural areas through dance, and finally receives the warm care of volunteer teachers, paying high respect to the power of education in the battle against poverty. In 2021, in the "Hearts of Sons and Daughters of All Ethnic Groups to the Party" song and dance party co-sponsored by the China Federation of Literary and Literary Associations, the group dance "First Secretary" created based on the real people and real events in Wudu District, Longnan City, Gansu Province, which was supported by the China Federation of Literature and Literature, portrayed the image of a poverty alleviation secretary in a novel way, and was well received after the performance. The group dance work "New Secretary in the Village", which won the "Star Award" at the 13th China Arts Festival this year, combines the elements of Shandong folk dance with the life images of the characters, and uses body language rich in folk regional characteristics to reproduce a touching picture of rural revitalization for the audience, showing the unique romance of dance art. The large-scale epic song and dance drama "Ode to the Earth" has created a touching image of a group of outstanding communists forging ahead bravely in the face of challenges through the method of singing and dancing, combined with various artistic languages such as images and animations, and so on. Only when realistic dance works get rid of the shackles of rigidly "copying" the original appearance of life and innovate in artistic concepts and techniques will the audience buy it. For example, the work "Spring Meeting", which won the 12th Lotus Award Modern and Contemporary Dance Awards, completely surpasses the generalization, formulaic and templated imitation of external movements in the fight against the epidemic, but uses repeated melodic dance movements to create beautiful images such as brave and fearless white-clothed angels in the fight against the epidemic. In this way, the new dance creation presents a positive working posture and spiritual outlook, highlighting the dancer's great concern and artistic care for real social life. These works face the reality of life, are good at capturing the highlights of the times, and the stance of putting great effort into artistic innovation is really inspiring.
In the past 10 years, the dance industry has developed rapidly and improved, and one of the most prominent phenomena is the emergence of Chinese modern dance creation trends and the coexistence and co-prosperity formed with Chinese national folk dance, Chinese classical dance and Chinese ballet. Since the reform and opening up, a big issue facing the dance industry is how to deal with the influx of Western modern dance trends. Once upon a time, irrationalism, symbolism, stream of consciousness, abstraction and other trends in Western modern art had a great impact on the practice of dance creation on the Chinese land, producing some new works while also dancers blindly following foreign concepts, and dance phenomena such as "personal moaning", "cup of water storm" and "rolling on the ground" appeared, and eating "foreign" did not turn into a period of embarrassment in the development of modern Chinese dance. Since the beginning of the new century, especially in the past 10 years, the rapid development of the country, the gradual enhancement of national self-confidence and the strong growth of cultural self-confidence have formed a strong counterattack to the above-mentioned dance creation phenomena and artistic tendencies, and the calm and thinking contemporary Chinese dancers have loudly expressed their views: We see the "riverbank"! The "river" here uses the Yellow River, the mother river of the Chinese nation, as a metaphor, and we call for the birth of Chinese style and Chinese style Chinese modern dance works "on the other side". For example, "The Invisible Wall", "Destiny", "Sleepless Night", "Life Performer", etc., penetrate the artistic touch into contemporary Chinese social life, outline the psychological state of contemporary young people with meaningful body movements, and reveal their expectations, ignorance, collision and breakthrough in their spiritual world. "Life" presents the endless life of the dancer with the expressive body, and praises the fighting spirit of not giving in and not giving in in the face of setbacks and challenges. What is even more rare is that Chinese modern dance works have begun to have artistic observation under the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind. For example, the motivation for the man's solo dance "Back Side" came from a widely circulated photograph in the international media: a child of a Syrian refugee drowned while smuggling, lying on the beach with his back facing the sky. Modern Chinese dancers use dance to interpret the tragic song of life, allowing the world to see the gaze, tears and interrogations of Chinese. In the past 10 years, Gao Yanjinzi, one of the pioneers of Chinese modern dance, has successively launched modern dance theater works such as "Twenty-four Solar Terms, Twelve Sounds Between Flowers" (2012), "October Spring Festival" (2013), "Zodiac Sign" (2016), "Water Question" (2018), etc., these works include the concept and story of the 24 solar terms, the Chinese color of the 12 zodiac signs, and excellent traditional Chinese cultural symbols have been transferred into modern art works. The ancient farming civilization and the beauty of contemporary Chinese culture quietly merge.
In the past 10 years, another remarkable phenomenon in the development of the dance industry is that in the era atmosphere of cultural self-confidence, a group of dance artists who have emerged in the name of "new literary and artistic groups" have officially entered the historical stage with a unique new identity, forming a new pattern of contemporary dance development. Taking dancer Yang Liping as an example, in 1979, she became famous with the original national dance drama "Peacock Princess", and in 1986, she won the first prize of creation and the first place in performance of the second national dance competition with "Spirit of the Sparrow". Just when people thought that this dancer would continue to enjoy various benefits in the National Academy of Arts troupe, she gently jumped back to Yunnan, and after launching "Yunnan Impression" in 2005 to complete the transformation of dancer to choreographer, she launched the dance drama "Peacock" in 2012, becoming a real dance drama creator. Immediately afterwards, as an independent dancer, independent choreographer and independent dance producer, she successively launched a series of plays such as "Ambush on Ten Sides" (2015), "The Rite of Spring" (2016), "Peacock Winter" (2018), etc., becoming a legend in the Chinese dance industry. Throughout the past 10 years, Yang Liping's dance drama creation, extremely broad cultural vision, transcendent stage concept, independent and novel body language, etc. have become proof of her artistic youth.
In the past 10 years, the new literary and artistic group has made people curious with its young appearance, and has impressed people with its unique artistic creations, showing the youthful vitality under the new era and new pattern. In 2012, Zhao Liang's "Phantom Tea Enigma" premiered in Germany, and the confusing stage landscape it created caused heated discussions in many international media. Subsequently, various new creations emerged. Shi Jingxin launched "Two Cities" in 2013, in which the changes between Shanghai and Beijing are recorded by dancing bodies; Wang Yabin's production of "Yabin and Her Friends Season 7" launched the dance drama "Tsing Yi" in 2015, which opened up the popularity of the unique brand... In the past 10 years, with the blessing and efforts of new literary and artistic groups, the concept and practice of "dance theater" have become increasingly prosperous. In 2016, Tang Shiyi, a young dancer who is now popular on the Internet, launched her dance theater work "Tang Shiyi Dance", which was loved by young audiences by dancing and transforming people with poetry. In 2017, Hua Xiaoyi's dance theater work "One Moment" conveyed the concept of "instant is eternity, one moment changes life" in the way of contemporary dance. In the same year, young dancer Hu Shenyuan, with the support of the Yang Liping National Culture and Art Foundation, staged his unique work "Wandering", which uses the melody of traditional Chinese music and dance vocabulary with both national characteristics and modern meaning to explore the living conditions of young people in the volatile contemporary social life. In 2021, the dance drama "Dream of Red Mansions" launched by Li Xing Studio uses classic IP to tell what people think and feel in contemporary life. In the new dance choreography and performance exploration, we also saw young dancer Zhu Fengwei's "25㎡ Rhapsody" (2022), in which the young people's desire and dream to struggle are eye-catching. Of course, we must also mention two "new literary and artistic groups" with full personality: "Tao Body Theater", founded in 2008 by Tao Ye, Duan Ni and Wang Hao, has continued to explore the change path of the human body in a series of works for more than ten years; Young dancer Xie Xin has used the "Xie Xin Dance Theater" to continuously perform physical symphony movements in Shanghai, Beijing and other major cities for many years.
The above-mentioned new pattern of dance development has brought new artistic styles and works, and brought new aesthetic spirit. We must see that the new pattern of the dance industry is closely related to the new industry promotion mechanism. It is with the support of the National Arts Fund and the Youth Support Fund of local governments, as well as the sponsorship of various investment and financing institutions and various cultural industry support policies, that a variety of creative mechanisms have been born in the new pattern, such as the partnership system, the independent producer system, and the combination system inside and outside the system. Multiple mechanisms coexist, multiple forces coexist, and the new dance of the new era shows new vitality.
In the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, contemporary Chinese dancers cheer and cheer for the new era with excellent work and new dance images, step on dance steps for the people, and rotate a beautiful figure for the great cause of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Today, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has opened the curtain of a new historical period, and contemporary Chinese dance is ready to climb towards new artistic peaks.
(The author is the chairman of the Chinese Dancers Association)
Source: Literature and Art Daily