The hot ballroom dance is often seen in the arena, and rarely appears in the theater in the form of dance drama to tell a complete story. On April 21st and 22nd, the original national standard dance drama "April Day in the World" launched by Beijing Dance Academy was staged at the Dance Theater of Beijing Dance Academy.
Romantic dance steps interpret Lin Huiyin's important life nodes
"April Day in the World" is supervised by the Art Practice Center of Beijing Dance Academy and created by the International Standard Dance Department of the General Party Branch of Foreign Dance Party. At the beginning of the dance drama, 16-year-old Lin Huiyin went to Europe to study, and the dancers wore crisp suits, beautiful dresses, and danced fashionable dance steps, bringing the audience to Lin Huiyin's world.
The story of the play runs through Lin Huiyin's life, including her love story with Xu Zhimo and Liang Sicheng, as well as her lifelong contribution to the protection of China's ancient buildings, as well as her experience of participating in the design of the national emblem and the monument to the people's heroes with faith. Ballroom dance is divided into two types of dance, Latin dance and modern dance, and Liang Qun, one of the chief directors of the play and a famous choreographer, chose students in the direction of modern dance when choosing the actor to play Lin Huiyin. "The temperament of Latin dance is more Western and sexy, while Lin Huiyin's temperament is a Jiangnan woman, delicate on the outside and unrestrained on the inside, and the overall image should be expressed by modern dance. Liang Qun said.
In the play, the romantic elegance of ballroom dance is brought into full play. The "wedding" between Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng is the most romantic scene in the whole play, Lin Huiyin in a white wedding dress dances with Liang Sicheng in a tuxedo, swaying and tilting to the music, which makes people intoxicated; and in the chapter that shows Lin Huiyin's dating life, modern young people wearing cheongsam, suits, and plaid shirts interact in the music with a slight jazz sense, dancing the most pleasant group dance in the whole play.
National Ballroom Dance Queue Imagery Interpretation of "Mortise and Tenon Structure"
The reason why Lin Huiyin's theme was chosen to do the national standard dance drama is because Liang Qun saw a unique temperament of both the East and the West in this rare talented woman.
"I saw Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng's wedding photos in Ottawa, one of them was wearing a wedding dress and the other was wearing a tuxedo, isn't this what the national ballroom dance looks like?" Liang Qun said that many young people at the same time as Lin Huiyin had the experience of studying abroad, were influenced by Western culture, could speak English and French, and wore suits, "Lin Huiyin is also studying ancient architecture, and he has a very oriental philosophy, and I was born in Chinese dance, and I have also done ballroom dance works, I think I can be competent for this theme." ”
When showing the plot of Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng protecting and researching ancient buildings, Liang Qun uses imagery to present the dance segments. "Ancient Chinese architecture has a mortise and tenon structure, and the different structures coincide with each other, which is exactly the relationship between the male and female dance partners of the Latin dance. Liang Qun imitates the mortise and tenon structure with one dance movement, integrates the charm of Tai Chi in Chinese dance, constructs the dance posture of Latin dance, and then through the change of queue and formation, the combination of Chinese and Western creates a dance section of "Building a Society, Mortise and Tenon".
In addition, Liang Qun also composed a guqin soundtrack for the national standard dance. The dance that expresses the mortise and tenon structure is to dance to the sound of the guqin, forming a unique aesthetic style. When Lin Huiyin hid in the farmhouse in Lizhuang, Sichuan Province during the Anti-Japanese War to create "History of Chinese Architecture", when she led Chang Shana and other classmates to design the national gift "Cloisonne Peace Dove Platter", the dingdong guqin sounded from time to time, making "April Day in the World" a lot of Chinese charm.
Walk out of the dancer and transform into an actor
The actors who appear in the play are all students of the 2021 and 2022 classes of the National Ballroom Dance Department of Beijing Dance Academy, and many of them have won awards in the field of Chinese sports dance, but the dancers of the national standard dance almost only participate in competitive competitions, rarely participate in repertoire performances, and dance is also a perennial partner with a fixed dance partner, without the concept of "entering the role" and "acting in rival plays", which has also become a major difficulty in the creation and rehearsal of the repertoire.
Backstage in the theater before the performance, Lin Huiyin's actor, Yang Xinyi, a 2021 student of Beijing Dance Academy, hung photos and portraits of Lin Huiyin from different years in front of the makeup mirror, and Yang Xinyi lived Lin Huiyin's life in her heart. "At first, it was really difficult to get into the state of interpreting the characters, for example, Lin Huiyin went to study in Europe, and we were very proficient in that dance part, but I had to learn to imagine myself as her, and show a very new and excited look. She recalled that in the early days of rehearsals, Liang Qun took her to watch operas, dance dramas, and even acrobatic dramas, and it took her a year to make her recognize from her heart that she was no longer a contestant on the field, nor was she anyone's dance partner, but Lin Huiyin, the person in the play.
After the performance of "April Day in the World", Liang Qun looked at Yang Xinyi on the stage and felt that she had finally "opened her mind". "The ballroom dance competition must be the same and cannot change, but the stage performance is different, and when you meet the audience, the state of the actors will be very different. Liang Qun is very pleased, "She has now taken her first step, from a competitive modern dancer to an actress." Speaking of the on-campus performance of "April Day in the World", Liang Qun gave himself a score of 80, "Judging from the audience's reaction, my attempt to create a national standard dance drama can be accepted by the audience, and the exploration of Chinese and Western integration does not make them feel disagreeable." ”
The play will be officially staged at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center from May 9 to 11.