It means the pioneering spirit of a generation

Author: Bai Shuxiang (famous dance performance artist, premiere of "Qionghua" in the ballet "Red Detachment of Women")

At the beginning of 1964, the leader decided to rehearse "The Red Detachment of Women" and soon set up a creative group to go to Hainan to live in depth. We borrowed a car from the local troops, walked from the Eastern Front, and when we arrived in Sanya, we folded back from the Middle Front.

We first met Feng Zengmin, who was the company commander of the Niangzi Army Company. She gave us a detailed introduction to the situation of the Girl Scout Army in that place in Qionghai, and in the second scene of "The Red Girl Scout Army", the dance sections of the female warriors were inspired by her, and the earliest script did not have this content.

We went to the coconut grove village again, at that time, the people were still very bitter, but there were many coconut trees. They would climb up the coconut tree, knock down one coconut at a time, then another, take a knife, cut left and right, and then stick the tube in and drink. In "The Red Detachment of Women", the company commander gives Qionghua a coconut milk, which is the inspiration from that scene.

From 1964 to 1965, choreographers Li Chengxiang and Wang Xixian and actors Bai Shuxiang and Zhao Ruyu were rehearsing "The Red Detachment of Women". Profile picture

We were still in the army for a while, at least ten days. Eating that "gun rice", the rice is particularly hard, we feel like "guns", but the soldiers eat that meal. They were very hard, marching at night, and they had to eat that kind of rice as a staple food in the morning, instead of drinking thin porridge. We ate with them and then went on military training with them. It was hot in Hainan, but like them, we stood under the sun and practiced playing pistols, and my pistols were very stable. We've also practiced shooting guns on your knees, which requires your hands to be particularly strong...

The choreographer division of "The Red Detachment of Women" is that Jiang Zuhui edited the first and second scenes, Wang Xixian edited the third and fifth scenes, and Li Chengxiang edited the fourth and sixth scenes, and most of Qionghua's actions were cut out from my body.

At the beginning, the double dance between Qionghua and the leader of the tuanding, the fourth, was always cuddling and turning around, but that kind of double dance was traditionally a love theme, which was obviously wrong in "The Red Detachment of Women". Later, we changed it step by step to what it is now. This is to start from the plot, to start from the characters, and we have realized at that time, do not be limited by the western ballet program, do not be limited by the traditional double dance, three-person dance, four-person dance mode, from the development of characters and plots to choreography.

The second one, which began with Qionghua's solo dance, after she complained to Hong Changqing, came a set of whips, sixteen, but the next action was to make her kneel down against Changqing. But later I felt that the kneeling action was obviously begging, and such a personality was obviously inconsistent with Qionghua, she should be a fiery look, a very strong personality. If you are so fragile to kneel and beg Evergreen for a way out, it is not right, so it is changed to a bow, and we feel that the bow is very real and natural. The growth line of the character of Qionghua is like this, from slave to warrior, then making mistakes, being educated, understanding reason, and finally taking over the evergreen briefcase and becoming the party representative of the Girl Scout Army.

In the dance of this play, a large number of classical Chinese dance movements are added. For me, there is no technical problem, because I have learned classical dance and opera, and after adding these classical dance moves, everyone feels that it is more suitable for the character of Qionghua. But in ballet dancers, adding classical Chinese dance moves is a very "bone-breaking" chore. In the past, when I danced Western ballet, the angle of 75 degrees, 90 degrees, 100 degrees, 180 degrees, the movements were always very accurate; After adding the Chinese classical dance, the action needs to be "thrown" vigorously, "dismantled" vigorously, the entire joint is "thrown" open, and the bone frame is about to be "dismantled" and scattered. Therefore, every day after the "flinging" and "dismantling", my whole body hurts everywhere, fortunately, I have a little foundation of classical dance, what front bridge, back bridge, turning head, I can do. Therefore, no matter how they "play" me, I am not afraid. Jiang Zuhui is very persistent, and the actions she asked me to experiment on exhausted me every day. To tell you the truth, at that time, I was young, I didn't understand the importance of this play, and I thought in my heart: "Just use me alone?" Isn't there someone else?" Later, I figured out that I was an "old comrade", so no matter how I "demolished", I had to resist.

At the Canton Fair in 1964, the Cuban National Ballet performed Giselle, and their leader Alonso and her actors saw the Chinese characteristics of the Red Detachment of Women, saw us using ballet to dance knives and guns, and were surprised to say that you can dance these things on stage with ballet, too dare you imagine. Alonso has lived through wars, become famous in the United States, and seen the world all over the world, and he feels that our "Red Detachment of Women" is not simple. Later, Yoko Morishita and Tetsutaro Shimizu of the Matsuyama Ballet of Japan also came to the National Ballet of China and learned all the "Red Detachment of Women", and we also shipped all the costumes, props, and sets to them.

In 1978, when the Chinese Art Troupe visited the United States, Yin Xiuzhe and I danced the "Qionghua and the Old Fourth" double dance, which was danced at Lincoln Center in New York and Kennedy Center in Washington. American modern dance master Martha Grame watched the performance of "The Red Detachment of Women" and felt very tense, and was also very surprised that we used ballet, a Western form, to express such a Chinese revolutionary theme. The Juilliard School also asked us to give a lecture about how this work is different. Later, "The Red Detachment of Women" had more opportunities to go abroad.

What does "Red Detachment of Women" mean to me personally? I think it means pioneering, foundation building, paving and dedication of our generation. Such an excellent work of art is, of course, not the achievement of one person, and the spirit of the "Girl Scout Army" is also inherited by the Barba people in the past generations.

This repertoire is indeed the crystallization of collective wisdom, and all the composers and choreographers were already influential artists at that time. At that time, I was still in the learning stage, but they had already done it. We have long been conclusive about the achievements of the "Red Detachment of Women", that is, chairman Mao's three sentences: "The direction is right, the revolution is successful, and the art is also good." "I think our dance circles, our literary and artistic circles, should seriously engage in creation and create another literary and artistic peak.

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily