On September 11, the large-scale acrobatic drama "Loulan Seeking Dreams" created by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Acrobatic Troupe appeared at the Sixth National Ethnic Minority Literature and Art Conference and broadcast on the CCTV network and the portal website of the State Nationalities Commission. Taking the historical record as the prototype of the story, the play uses the difficult skills of acrobatics and the gorgeous stage art to interpret the auspicious light katayu between the gaps in the history of the ancient country of Loulan, showing the diversified blending and eclecticism of Chinese culture, interpreting the profound connotation of the pluralism and integration of the Chinese nation, and also reflecting the common psychology and historical trend of the pursuit of unity and unity of all ethnic groups.
Promotional poster for "Lou Lan Dream Hunting".
"Loulan Dream" reproduces the history of the mysterious Loulan Ancient Country with 5 parts: "Remembering Dreams", "Tracing Dreams", "Chasing Dreams", "Frightening Dreams" and "Continuing Dreams":
In order to ensure the stability of Loulan, the two princes of Loulan, An Gui and Wei Tuqi, were sent to the Xiongnu and Han Dynasties as hostages respectively. After the death of King Laoloulan, An Gui was sent back to China by the Xiongnu to succeed him as king. After arriving in Loulan, the late Wei Tuqi and the Han envoy Fu Family Father and Daughter arrived in Loulan, step by step unveiled the veil that their brother An Gui was not a benevolent king. For the sake of Bao Loulan's long-term peace and stability, the contradictions between the two brothers continued to intensify, and finally ushered in the day of the duel...
Stills from "Lou Lan Dream".
As the first artistic attempt to combine the innovation of classical music, folk dance, grammatical poetry, custom painting and other forms with the acrobatic art of the Corps, "Loulan Dream" shows the ancient Silk Road culture with distinctive national songs and dances, and depicts a colorful picture of the Western Regions.
Acrobatics are a highlight of the show. In recent years, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Acrobatic Troupe has compiled and created a number of high-quality programs such as "Swan Lake - Men's HandstandIng Skills", "Toward the Sun - Rope Technique", "Spring Rhymes - Women's Modeling", and has won many awards in major acrobatic competitions at home and abroad. In "Lou Lan Dream", the main creative team dismantled these award-winning programs, and integrated acrobatic techniques such as drums, wheelbarrows, hoops, shoulder ballet, water meteors and dancing flags with dramatic elements, making the audience feel like they were in the ancient silk road country with yellow sand.
Loulan Ancient Kingdom was one of the Thirty-six Western States of the Han Dynasty and an important transit point for commodity trade on the Silk Road. As a place where multicultural cultures converge, Loulan's unique geographical environment and diverse national culture contain rich cultural genes and are an inexhaustible source of creation.
Talking about the creativity of "Loulan Dream", general director Li Xining said: "Since the 'Belt and Road' initiative was proposed, I have had the impulse to create from the bottom of my heart, and when this impulse gradually overlapped with the ancient country of Loulan, this acrobatic drama came to the audience. ”
In "Loulan Dream", there are not only Roman merchants, Persian merchants, but also ethnic minorities and Han people in the western region; you can see both Arabic dances and Han fan dances and silk dances. Acrobatic dramas show the convergence and integration of multi-ethnic cultures, which is a vivid embodiment of the inclusiveness of Chinese culture.
"Lou Lan Dream" began to be created in 2016 and premiered in 2018, with a total of 24 public welfare performances in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. Many viewers said excitedly after watching it: "Different acrobatics, different Lou Lan!" The first time I saw acrobatics performed in the form of a play, it was wonderful and very storytelling. The performance shows the exchanges and blending of various ethnic groups, and you can feel the full positive energy, which is worth watching. ”
The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps has always played an important role in safeguarding Social Stability and Long-term Peace and Stability in Xinjiang. Generations of corps members have firmly rooted themselves in the borderlands and started businesses at the same time, built the Gobi Desert into a rich homeland, and built an iron wall along the border defense line. As a key literary and artistic work project of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, "Loulan Dream" integrates the culture of the Central Plains and the culture of the frontier, showing the cultural characteristics of the Corps. It vividly shows with history that whether in the past, present or future, the exchanges and integration, unity and cohesion of all ethnic groups and common progress have always been the mainstream.
Drama review
Explore the thousand-year-old city in your heart
Guo Yunpeng
Loulan, in the Han Dynasty, was the main road to the Western Regions, and was an ancient city where merchants gathered. The baptism of time has made the poetic place of Loulan fade away the prosperity and hustle and bustle of the past and become "Pompeii in the desert". Broken city walls, dry lakes, decaying poplars, and mysterious beauties have accumulated into a unique beauty that makes people have boundless reverie.
The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Acrobatic Troupe newly compiled a large-scale original acrobatic drama "Loulan Dream", through the organic integration of the "skill" of acrobatics and the "art" of drama, let the audience embark on the long road of dream hunting in the yellow sand, and the dusty Loulan was revived in people's imagination.
First of all, the characters in the play are full of images, distinctive personalities, and outstanding characteristics. The main characters of the play are two princes An Gui and Wei Tuqi, there are Han Dynasty envoys Fu Jiezi and daughter Fu Miaojun, as well as nursing mothers and shamans. An emotional main line runs through the whole play, during which there is male and female love, brotherly love, monarchy and people's feelings, etc., so that the characters in the play become vivid and warm. The actors accurately grasped and depicted the behaviors and psychological activities of each character, creating a real, intimate, vivid and specific character image.
Secondly, the drama is logically rigorous, rich in content, and has a complete storyline. The play designs the storyline of the nursing mother hoping for the return of the king in the social turmoil, the reunion of the brothers, the two brothers turning against each other, colluding with the Xiongnu to secretly murder the brother, winning the duel with the brother, and the people living in peace and prosperity. This scene has both song and dance, as well as sword and light sword shadow, which shows the warmth and prosperity, but also the ferocity and withering, the plot is interlocked, and the contradictions and conflicts and emotional expressions are fully presented.
Moreover, the play is intended to be healthy and full of positive energy. An Gui was arrogant and extravagant, oppressed the people, and Wei Tuqi was kind and just, sympathetic to the people's livelihood, and the contrast between good and evil was stark. Wei Tuqi petitioned for the people and was loved by the people, showing the people's yearning for a better life and their pursuit of freedom and peace. The beautiful spirit and values carried forward in the play closely link the past, present and future, and play a role in taking history as a mirror and using history as a guide.
Acrobatics became a plus for the repertoire. The acrobatic program is a good play of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Acrobatic Troupe, but the main creative team did not directly copy the past gold award program of the troupe when compiling and creating, but skillfully made trade-offs according to the plot, decomposing the original complete acrobatic program into independent action skills, and re-integrating the plot development needs according to the theme expression, character shaping, plot ups and downs, contradiction changes, etc., so that the unique personality of acrobatics develops into thematic, dramatic, and linguistic arts in the performance. Use collective handstanding techniques to express the various poplar shapes in the desert; use rapid and changeable rope techniques to express the scenes of horse-raising and military emergency in the war; use women's collective shapes to express the beauty and prosperity of the palace night banquet, singing and dancing equality... The clever use of acrobatic elements in the play has become the highlight of the whole play, reflecting the great wisdom of "giving up to get".
The play firmly grasps the convergence point of art and technology, adopts advanced stage image real-time interaction technology, realizes the synchronous switching of multimedia virtual scenes and real stage scenes, and the stage becomes more full and rich, creating realistic stage effects such as the court of the night banquet, the prosperous market, and the caravan in the desert, which increases the audience's sense of scene and visual impact.
Source: State Nationalities Commission