Author: Xuanjing
"The red star shines brightly, the red star shines brightly and warms the heart..." Stepping on the impassioned melody of "Red Star Song", Shanghai Ballet debuted at the Shanghai Grand Theatre from October 5 to 6 with its original ballet "Shining Red Star". The story unfolds slowly from the perspective of Pan Dongzi, a soldier of the Red Army, and the memories of his childhood are intertwined with the battles of adulthood, making him more determined in his faith and willing to fight for the protection of thousands of families. Combining Shanghai culture with red culture, combining revolutionism with romanticism, combining classical ballet elements with the idea of national dance, the play not only refreshed the Shanghai audience, but also attracted the attention of the Chinese dance community.
Shanghai Ballet with the original ballet "Shining Red Star" slowly unfolds from the perspective of Pan Dongzi, a soldier of the Red Army, and his childhood memories are intertwined with the battles of adulthood, making him more determined and willing to fight for the protection of thousands of families. Draft: Feng Xiaoyu
In recent years, the creation of red-themed ballets has entered a "productive period", which not only seeks a clearer "Chinese logo" for "cultural going out", but also responds to the needs of the times and shows the face of contemporary China. "In the process of nationalization of ballet, we have been exploring how to establish the 'Chinese School'. The so-called 'Chinese school' is to make full use of classical ballet techniques, and to "transform" them into a combination with ethnic folk dance and Chinese classical dance, and finally integrate it into the creation of dance dramas. Shu Qiao, a famous dancer and choreographer, believes that the original ballet "Shining Red Star" is one of the closest attempts to the classical ballet art body, and has important pioneering significance for the establishment of the "Chinese School" of ballet.
Tell Chinese stories with classical ballet aesthetics and express the romantic feelings of prose poetry
After hundreds of years of development, Western ballet has formed different schools such as Italy, France, Russia, Denmark, Britain, and the United States, and each school is closely integrated with its own national character. From the perspective of repertoire creation, since ballet entered China in the 1950s, the Chinese dance industry has begun to explore the road of characteristics. Over the past 50 years, Chinese ballet has developed from the founding years of the classic works "Red Detachment of Women" and "White Haired Girl" to the "modern school" that combines ballet and modern dance, and has embarked on a magnificent road of innovation. In Shu Qiao's view, the nationalization of ballet now stands at the entrance of the third stage of development, and the ballet "Shining Red Star" provides valuable experience for future creation.
The ballet "Shining Red Star" premiered at the Shanghai International Arts Festival in China in October 2018 and has now toured nearly 110 times across the country. "Ballet has its own unique form of expression, how to tell the Chinese story well with classical ballet aesthetics, how to transmit the values of Chinese to the world through ballet art, 'Shining Red Star' is exploring a new path." Zhao Ming, the choreographer and screenwriter of the dance drama, told reporters that the play strives to find the convergence point between the image of Chinese soldiers and the classical ballet system with romantic creative means.
In the outline of the creation of the ballet "Shining Red Star", important artistic topics such as the globalization of Chinese stories, the fashion of national elements, the modernization of classical techniques, the artistry of revolutionary embodiment, and the romanticization of natural materials are listed. Following this artistic line of thought, "Shining Red Star" reconciles the nationality and cosmopolitanism in art, and the imagery of "Yingshan Hong" and "Red Five Stars" in the dance drama is given a personified expression and expresses the romantic feelings of prose poetry. "To tell Chinese stories in ballet language, we must not only learn from Western aesthetic ideas, but also have the artistic conception of China's virtual reality." Song Guanlin, director of the National Arts Fund and first-class performance supervisor, believes that "Shining Red Star" is an active return to classical ballet, showing the intermingling of reality and virtual space, the intersection of realism and freehand techniques, reflecting the exchange and mutual learning of Chinese and foreign artistic styles, and enriching the aesthetic spirit of Chinese ballet.
The creation has a distinct sense of the times, and the "moisturizing and silent" conveys the power of faith
How to combine the aesthetic concept of ballet with the national integrity and faith power of Chinese is one of the difficulties in the creation of the ballet "Shining Red Star". In the play, the protagonist's childhood and adulthood are intertwined across time and space, and memory and reality are intertwined, so that the mother's spiritual strength grows up against Pan Dongzi. This multi-dimensional spatial expression has the meaning of film montage. "'Twinkle Red Star' confirms The original intention of Shanghai Ballet to explore the creation of Chinese ballet, and it reinterprets the red classics with a contemporary spirit, ballet vocabulary and Shanghai style." Xin Lili, director of the Shanghai Ballet, said.
Experts believe that the creation of Chinese ballet should have a distinct sense of the times and portray the great spirit of the times. Chinese ballet in the new era should not only tell Chinese stories, but also further explore the use of international vocabulary to express the humanistic thinking and spiritual feelings of contemporary China. Wang Su, a professor at the Shanghai Theater Academy, was deeply impressed by the dance sections such as "Red Star Dance", "Yingshan Hong" and "Bamboo Row Dance" in the play, and she believes that the ballet "Shining Red Star" not only brings the enjoyment of beauty, but also conveys sincere emotions, and has the moving power of "moisturizing and silent". "In the play, the Red Army soldier's great love for the country and the nation is intertwined with his thoughts of his relatives, sublimated into the strength of faith and the spirit of sacrifice, with a grander ideological feeling."
20 years ago, the choreographer Zhao Ming's dance drama "Shining Red Star" tells the story of the revolution with body language; 20 years later, his new ballet work looks back at the protagonist Pan Dongzi's mental journey from a spiritual level. "I put my own feelings about life, art, and revolution on Pan Dongzi, and this drama is a 'hurdle' that I must pass on the road of creation."
Zhao Ming told reporters that in order to make the structure of the dance drama clearer and the expression of emotions more abundant, he not only drastically modified the dance section, but even once dismantled and reshaped this work with passion and blood. "In the midst of several revisions, I sat quietly under the stage and re-examined the work completely from the perspective of the audience, and new inspiration and passion always emerged." It is reported that the ballet "Shining Red Star" presented at the Shanghai Grand Theatre is the eighth draft.
The creative team's persistent artistic pursuit and superhuman perseverance and courage also inspired the actors of Shanghai Ballet. Wu Husheng, the actor of Pan Dongzi and the chief star of Shangba, is one of the top young dancers in China today. This time, he was good at classical ballet, breaking the past way of performing, not only crawling, squatting, and falling to the ground like a real warrior, but also using a rich performance to bring the audience into the dance plot, and the stage and offstage jointly completed this work. "This is a role that is both classic and subverted," Wu Husheng said, "Standing on the stage, carrying a gun, the blood of the Chinese boils up, and the full character emotions pour out naturally." (Xuanjing)
Source: Wen Wei Po