Source: People's Daily
Core Reading
Gengma is an ethnic autonomous county, with 10 ethnic groups and 125 intangible cultural heritages. This fertile cultural soil has always nourished art lovers.
The Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe, with an average age of less than 30 years old, has 35 contract performers, who are basically song and dance lovers recruited from the countryside, and perform no less than 200 performances in enterprises, rural areas, campuses, military camps, communities, scenic spots, and neighborhoods every year.
After a 4-year absence, I was impressed.
At the end of 2023, I will once again walk into the orange courtyard in the county seat of Gengma Dai Wa Autonomous County, Lincang City, Yunnan Province, and this performance team with an average age of less than 30 years old has been renamed "Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe". In 2019, the work "Dai Women's Creative Boxing" won the first prize in the comprehensive performance category of the 11th National Minority Traditional Sports Games, and in 2022, it was commended as an advanced collective of the national grassroots art troupe, and the work "Gaduo" won the "Caiyun Award", the highest award for mass culture and art in Yunnan Province......
People say that the "golden peacock" flew out of the south of the clouds.
Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe performance stills. (Photo by Ai Qing)
Immerse yourself in the countryside, immerse yourself in the culture
The night is as cool as water. At half past seven o'clock in the evening, the cultural square of Mangpian Village, Gengma Town, Gengma County, was lively, and villagers gathered here from all directions. The long wooden benches brought out of the cultural activity room gradually filled with people, and other villagers squatted under the big green trees on the side. The song "Geng Ma's Road" is playing on the loudspeaker. A young man in a camouflage uniform rode an electric car and brought a box of mineral water to the performance site......
This is a temporary performance of "sending culture to the countryside" arranged by the Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe. Decide in the morning and start the gong in the evening. At 8 p.m., the show began, and the children playing in the square quieted down. The stage is exciting, and the rows of benches under the stage keep moving forward, and the atmosphere is becoming more and more lively.
In enterprises, rural areas, campuses, military camps, communities, scenic spots, and neighborhood performances, the Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe performs no less than 200 times a year. "It's an artistic reflux. Wang Feng, head of the Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe, said: "Our songs and dances come from the villages, and we must return to the villages for the villagers to test." For us, going to the countryside to perform is the most difficult to deal with, it is a very high stage. ”
Since 2016, the county government has given a certain amount of financial subsidies to this team every year in the form of purchasing services, and the task of the song and dance troupe is to carry out 70 cultural activities in the countryside, and is responsible for the county's Spring Festival, Songkran Festival, Seedlings Festival and other festivals. The song and dance troupe also needs to complete the script creation and rehearsal of more than 5 works every year, closely contact and guide more than 5 rural theatrical performance teams, and strive to win at least one provincial award every 3 years.
Although it is winter, the grass and trees are still verdant, from the county town over the mountains and mountains, the high thousands of fruit olive flowers and fruits on the side of the road are red and bright like fire, this is Yunmao Village, Mengding Town. The 73-year-old Dai boxer Bleshanden is striking iron at home, and he is so thin that he can make one or twenty Dai knives a day. He is one of the Dai boxing masters of the song and dance troupe.
In order to create a dance drama about Dai boxing, Wang Feng visited the masters who could play Dai boxing in the countryside of Mengding. Some masters ask for apprenticeship, and they need to study in the mountains for more than 7 days. After Wang Feng's soft grinding and hard bubbles, more than 30 members of the group were finally able to collectively learn boxing.
Many people feel that the art of the Dai nationality is "gentle as water", and the fierce and martial "Mengxiang Gengkan Dai Boxer" appeared as soon as it appeared, and it was heroic and sassy, which was very eye-catching. In fact, in the verdant Gengma, there are many similar intangible cultural heritages, and the song and dance troupe, under the leadership of Wang Feng, "dig to the roots, and do it to the end". "Our inheritance is not to wear a few old-fashioned clothes and add a few elements, but to let the actors learn opera, read books, immerse themselves in the culture, figure out the details and charm of singing and dancing, and create flesh-and-blood works. Wang Feng said.
Performing in the countryside has trained the actors. 31-year-old Feng Jinli has a deep experience, "Some remote mountainous areas have to walk in, and then walk home at night after the performance, which is cold and wet, and can only arrive in the middle of the night." But thinking about the eager eyes and enthusiastic retention of the mountain people, especially those old people, everything is worth it. As she spoke, her eyes lit up.
Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe sent culture to the countryside in Mangpian Village to perform at the scene. (Photo by Xu Yuanfeng)
Respect for life, innovative expression, and lead the fashion
On the short video platform, Wang Feng's "UP Gengma" has more than 2.3 million views, and many short videos of dancing have more than 100,000 views.
The Songkran Festival is a well-known Dai festival for women and children, and the Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe has launched 4 short videos of "Songkran Dance" in a row.
The first issue of "Splashing Water Dance", which became popular, took a week to complete. The filming location was set in Mengding's village, the scene props were ready-made, and the villagers were extras. Mu Jiyan, then executive deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Gengma County Party Committee, recalled that there was only 5,000 yuan for production and a single-lens reflex camera at that time, and the cost was pressed again and again. Ai Qing, a reporter from the Gengma County Rong Media Center who was in charge of filming and editing, said: "Our lens language may not be the most beautiful, but it is certainly sincere and true. In the film, the original flavor of the color steel tile is presented, the tractor has become a prop, the simple and playful beauty is permeated, and the happy scene is particularly infectious.
There's a shot in the video that was taken in the valley. At that time, the water in the valley seemed to have been frozen in a refrigerator, and the actors still shouted "for Geng Ma" to perform in the water. Because there is only one camera to shoot, the same dance movement has to be performed several times in order to present it from multiple angles.
"Keeping the right and not keeping the old, respecting the ancient and not the ancient", the innovative expression of traditional culture needs to grasp the balance point. Taking clothing as an example, Wang Feng went to the museum to look for traditional clothing elements such as "pipa placket", and redesigned it in combination with the requirements of the costumes. The design with brighter colors and more suitable for modern life soon became popular in Dai Township, and the eldest girl and little daughter-in-law in the village followed the trend after watching the video, leading the fashion of the local Songkran Festival.
Letting go and trusting are the greatest supports. Folk singer Yan Han is not highly educated, but he has a great influence in the local area, and his fans have chartered a bus to watch the performance. The County Bureau of Culture and Tourism recruited him to become an official actor of the song and dance troupe in the form of talent introduction. Some time ago, the county magistrate came to the group to investigate, and also coordinated funds to build a recording studio for Yan Hangen.
Gengma National Song and Dance Troupe performance stills. (Photo by Jia Xiang)
Take the song and dance performance as the happiest thing, and dedicate a beautiful story to a whole
On the evening of December 27, 2023, the song and dance troupe performed the stage play "Mengxiang Gengkan Dai Boxer" at the county cinema. This is their report performance after returning to their hometown after touring Kunming, Honghe, Pu'er and other places. In this regard, Wang Feng is very proud: "In 2023, there are only two tours sponsored by the Yunnan Provincial Literature and Art Fund, one is our group and the other is Yang Liping's team. "In order to make a great appearance on the tour, the nervous members often rehearse late into the night.
The predecessor of the song and dance troupe was called the "National Culture Task Force". More than 10 years ago, when Wang Feng, a former elementary school music teacher, took over the team, there were only seven people in the team. Li Bo, who is now the deputy head of the regiment, recalled that 10 years ago, the monthly salary of the team members was only more than 1,000 yuan, but at that time, they could earn 2,000 or 3,000 yuan as a small worker in a restaurant......
In order to survive, Wang Feng led everyone on the road of commercial performances, and traveled south to north and middle to increase knowledge and expand the team. Everyone slowly realized that what the audience loves to watch is the Dai song and dance culture from the frontier. Their determination to put down roots in their homeland was thus strengthened.
The song and dance troupe currently has 35 contract performers, basically all of whom are song and dance lovers recruited from the countryside. The 23-year-old Yin Shao is from Hanhong Xiazhai, Mengding Town, and has been in the group for 8 years. She loved dancing since she was a child, and she taught herself to dance at the age of 7 by watching discs. Yan Ping, 28 years old this year, studied food processing when he was a secondary school student, and he entered the industry halfway. The training is hard, and it is all about love. At the beginning of rehearsals, some actors couldn't hold down their legs and secretly cried. The song and dance troupe takes the practice of basic skills as the foundation of life, splitting, lower waist, somersault, horizontal rotation, handstand and other actions, actors must master, body, expression, posture training, etc.
The progress of the song and dance troupe is not only from obscurity to winning awards and recognition, not only the skills of the actors have become more professional, but more importantly, the understanding of culture. The original stage play "Who Am I" tells such a story: an old artist who dances the traditional dance of the Dai people has Alzheimer's disease, and his son and grandson don't recognize it, but as soon as he hears the sound of elephant foot drums and gongs, he can't help but dance, as if returning to the old days, he finally got the understanding of his grandson, and the traditional dance has been passed on. Concise stage language, distinctive cultural elements, seven or eight minutes, a lifetime of performance, straight to the hearts of the people. Nengdi, who has been in the troupe for 7 years, plays the grandson of an old artist in the play, he said: "The stage play is about our mission. ”
These young people, respecting tradition, loving art, regard singing and dancing performances as the happiest thing, dedicate beautiful stories one after another, and depict the charm of the mountains and rivers of their hometown, and the state of the world. (Xu Yuanfeng)
Typography: Zhao Siru
People's Daily (2024-01-11 Edition 19)