关于当代中国十大芭蕾舞剧的述评
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摘要
现代意义上的中国舞剧艺术是西方文化影响下的产物。西方文化视野中的舞剧,其实就是芭蕾。中华人民共和国成立之初的1950年,中央戏剧学院舞蹈团就创演了《和平鸽》。从剧名来看舞剧的喻体,明显带有《天鹅湖》的印记。1959年新中国成立十周年之际,在苏联专家古雪夫指导下创演的《鱼美人》,探索建立一种中国古典舞与西方芭蕾舞相互补充的"古典—芭蕾"体系。真正意义上的中国芭蕾舞剧,是《鱼美人》首演五年后问世的《红色娘子军》及与其同时问世的《白毛女》,经20世纪80年代初期的《祝福》《林黛玉》《雷雨》《家》,到90年代末期直至21世纪以来的《大红灯笼高高挂》《梅兰芳》《二泉映月》和《风雪夜归人》等,中国"芭蕾民族化"或者说"芭蕾中国学派"的舞剧创作正向新的历史时段前行。
Introduction: creation experiment from The Dove of Peace to The Fish Beauty In September 1950, the dance troupe of the Central Academy of Drama staged a grand ballet: The Dove of Peace. The title suggests a marked connection between the ballet and the Western classics The Swan Lake. It was the first attempt of staging a grand ballet in China. Integrating the merits of classical ballet from Western Europe, the swans catering to the aristocratic taste were replaced with doves that the general folk love. Throughout the ballet, The Dove of Peace, as the lead dancer, is in constant conflict with war mongers. The ballet copies swans in a parallel form — doves, while the image embodies lofty ideas and concepts. However, the audience did not care about the ideas or concepts but rather complained that the performance was a mere movement of legs and would corrupt the military and peasant audience.In the 1950 s, W. Y. Cholin and Pyotr Gusev, from the Soviet Union, taught a choreography class in Beijing Dance School. From 1955 to 1957, Choplin revised The Useless Precaution, the classic of narrative ballet; from 1957 to 1959, Gusev not only revised The Swan Lake, but also led his students of the choreography class to compose The Fish Beauty which was intended as an experiment to explore the development of Chinese ballet and the establishment of a new ballet: a classical ballet integrating Chinese classical dance and Western ballet. However, China's first ballet was The Red Detachment of Women, which came after The Fish Beauty.I. The Red Detachment of Women: a revolution in ballet The proposal to adapt The Red Detachment of Women(Choreography: LI Cheng-xiang, JIANG Zu-hui, and WANG Xi-xian) from a movie into a ballet was first of all an answer to the call of Premier ZHOU to create ballets on revolutionary themes. Second, the movie highlighted the Marxian class theory and revolutionary war, so it had a great influence at that time. As for the process of creation, the choreographer LI Cheng-xiang said: The rehearsal of The Red Detachment of Women represents, in fact, the growth of creative and artistic thinking. It is also an innovation on traditional ballet. The Red Detachment of Women tells the stories of the proletarian revolution, and the characters are fervent communists. In terms of content, it is a revolutionary ballet. They have followed the following principles. They start with the story and characters, and adapt the inherent stylistic characteristics of ballet and its skills to fit with the Chinese folk dance. At the same time, this ballet is based on real life and creates a new dance discourse. In terms of inheritance, they've followed the rules of ballet. A large number of ballet movements, like tiptoe movements, twisting and jumping are used. About skills and body movements, the tight body and turnout are insisted. They also respect the feelings of new characters and strive to break through the limit of the traditional gestures and styles of ballet. They abandon the aristocratic style of posturing and adopt new gestures and body shapes based on real life so that it can express the cheerful and high-spirited emotions of the working people. A new action vocabulary is added to the ballet discourse. The Red Detachment of Women premiered in Beijing in 1964. It consisted of three acts and six scenes, together with a prelude and an interlude. Commenting on the ballet, LONG Yin-pei said in a paper, "The ballet The Red Detachment of Women is a successful enrichment and development of ballet. It has laid the foundation for the Chinese school of ballet."II. The White-haired Girl: creating a new form of ballet The White-haired Girl(Music: YAN Jin-xuan; Choreography: HU Rong-rong, FU Ai-dai, CHENG Dai-hui, and LIN Yang-yang) is based on the story of a girl called Xi-er who was forced to become a white-haired girl and then claimed her justice. It elaborated the literary theme that in the old society people were forced into the hell, and the new society brought them back to the human world. In order to help the audience appreciate the ballet, the choreographers combined abstraction and reality. In terms of drama structure, they managed to achieve coherence, structure, and clarity. In particular, they were bold enough to break the ballet rule by adding dialogues. They even added some vocal accompaniments, creating a new form of ballet which not only shortened the distance between the audience and dancers, but also stimulated the enthusiasm of the dancers. Besides keeping some pieces of the original music, the ballet adds quite a lot of songs in solo, ensemble, unison, and chorus, including popular revolutionary songs in the Anti-Japanese War period, which gives the ballet more realism and creates a stronger response from the audience.III. Blessing: starting psychological description in Chinese ballet In 1981, to celebrate the 100 th anniversary of LU Xun's birth, a series of dance dramas based on the literary works of LU Xun were created and performed, of which the most notable was Blessing(Choreography: JIANG Zu-hui; Music: LIU Ting-yu) by the National Ballet of China. ZHOU Wei-lun pointed out that LU Xun's novel Blessing portrayed the history in great depth with realistic descriptions. The heroine Sister Xiang-lin, a badly hurt and insulted woman, is a typical image of Chinese suffering heart-breaking spiritual trauma. The choreographer reproduced the novel in the form of a ballet, which laid a solid foundation for the nationalization of foreign art forms. It has been proved that a national theme, a national character and realism are indispensable factors of ballet nationalization. YANG Shao-pu spoke highly of the ballet. He said, "Blessing is the first dance drama in China dedicated to psychological description in the 1980 s. It is an early and yet major attempt of psychological description in ballet. It is the result of choreographers' explorations over the past decades. Blessing has continued the international fashion of psychological description in ballet. One of the characteristics of Blessing is the expression of Chinese style. It reveals the psychological changes with emotional progression step by step, so that we can see how consideration, sympathy, and mutual understanding affect the transition and development of the hero and heroine." He also believes that the Chinese ethics and implicitness is highlighted on the stage and finally resolves the challenge of presenting the inner world of two characters.IV. LIN Dai-yu: poeticizing dramatic factors in ballet LIN Dai-yu(Music: SHI Fu; Choreography: LI Cheng-xiang and WANG Shi-qi) began as a small dancedrama The Death of Dai-yu which was later expanded into a four-act drama. Commenting on the ballet, HU Er-yan once said, "Its structure is a prose, characterized by its emphasis on expression and the psychological description of the characters. It conveys feelings through plot twists. It is a complete drama, to some extent." HU Er-yan also pointed out that the fourth act was based on the psychological development of Dai-yu, occasionally interspersed with irrational flows of consciousness. As a result, while creating a scattered sense without chaos, this act offers a clear structure of psychology and consciousness and reveals extremely delicate feelings. It is like a psychological description in a poem where Dai-yu has more space and time for her emotional play. According to LI Cheng-xiang and WANG Shi-qi, this act is the most free and unrestrained, poetic and purest dance. The traditional and modern aesthetics are most naturally blended. As LI Cheng-xiang summed up, the ballet LIN Dai-yu goes against one of his own creation dogmas, taking one step forward: It poeticizes the drama where reality gives way to emotional expression. He noted that, as the scene was an antithesis to love affairs and the sweet romance of wedding, Dai-yu's tragic death was unfit to be the climax, so he used the stream-of-consciousness technique, reversing the time line of the original story, breaking down the boundary of space and time. Instead, he presented the strong love between Bao-yu and Daiyu in a pas de-deux. The wedding scene also comes to the stage following Dai-yu's random thoughts, and Daiyu even illogically appears in the wedding scene, thus making a trio of Dai-yu, Bao-yu, and Bao-chai. LI Cheng-xiang believed that this creates the mixture of the present and the past, as well as different environment factors. Therefore, it avoids segmenting plots so that the dance is a coherent unity and the character's inner world is more fully displayed.V. Thunderstorm: reproducing a play in a ballet The drama Thunderstorm was first adapted into a three-act ballet by HU Rong-rong, LIN Xin-ge, and YANG Xiao-min of Shanghai Ballet(Music: YE Chunzhi). In order to be faithful to the original and meet the requirements of ballet, one of the innovations was to compress the first two acts into one so that the ballet would be more concentrated and compact. The second was to bring stories behind the scene onto the stage. And the third was to increase the prologue to highlight the tryst between the protagonists ZHOU Ping and Fan-yi, which was a concise approach to tell the love affair between the two characters. In addition, hallucinations were used to show the relationships between characters. TANG Mancheng's comment was that the choreographer adopted a completely realistic approach. With exquisite lifelike details, the ballet reproduced the structure of the drama and the relationships between the characters. In other words, the project has reproduced the drama completely in a ballet. The critic noted that of the four acts, three took place in the living room of the ZHOU family. Ballet is popularly considered an abstract language, but Thunderstorm used real time and space skillfully to form an organic whole. It also showed different personalities accurately, including their intricate and sharp conflicts in a lot of details that seemed impossible to present in dance at all. For instance, quarrels between ZHOU Ping and Fan-yi were reproduced through the dancers' body movements. TANG Man-cheng recognized that the ballet had a concrete and profound content, but it did not turn into a realistic mime. A lot of skills were used to preserve the beauty of ballet. It has many successful attempts worthy of study.VI. Family: "a symphony of fate" composed of "features"The ballet Family was based on a long novel with a great many characters and events. The reproduction of emotions and psychological movements was realistic but not sufficient or natural enough, while the prologue was a symbolic account of the relationships between characters and their fates. According to choreographer LIN Lianrong, the ballet began with the black door of the high courtyard opening slowly in the sullen gongs. A group of dancers in black came onto the stage representing the feudal dark forces and showing the dominating power of the patriarchal head of the family, Lord GAO. Then the light casts on the two young characters Mei and Jue-xin who showed their love through pas de deux. Then Lord GAO appeared again and pointed to a lady in bridal dress. Immediately, the black dancers separated Jue-xin and Mei, pushing Jue-xin to the bride. Jue-xin begged, but in vain. With a heavy gesture, Lord GAO hushed Jue-xin, Mei, and the bride. Jue-xin and the bride knelt for the wedding while Mei retreated. Composed of a series of feature dances, the ballet played a symphony of the fate of characters. According to Master FU Zhao-xian, the ballet explored the new structure of dance drama. Looking deeply into the psychology of characters, the ballet used symbolic techniques to present emotional infections and enlightenment. The psychological movements of characters made up the main structure of scenes which were not connected, but the meaning of the ballet was unified, clean, concentrated, and concise. Unlike Master FU, the choreographer LIN Lian-rong focuses more on the action design and the portrayal of relationships. The spirit was reproduced, transcending the reality of dance movements. VII. Raise the Red Lantern: reproducing the visual taste of dance drama The screenwriter and director of the ballet Raise the Red Lantern is ZHANG Yi-mou the famous film director. China's current weakness in dance drama creation, especially in ballet creation, makes ZHANG Yi-mou a good partner for Central Ballet. The ballet Raise the Red Lantern shows that ZHANG Yi-mou can very well make up for the weakness. The ballet critic YANG Shao-pu said, ZHANG is good at mobilizing various artistic means for comprehensive treatment. For example, the first act was pas de deux in shadow play, and then the dancers ran through the paper screen and chase each other. The props are very skillfully used, such as a piece of red silk covering a woman raped by Lord, his third wife. The final scene is especially brilliant: A white wall stands in the back of the stage and becomes bloody as it is thrashed by the servants, while the three victims keep dancing and rolling on the floor. It is a bold innovation and produces a pleasant shock. After over two years of performance and revision, the ballet shifts the narrative focus of the original novel Wives and Concubines and sublimates the theme. ZHANG Yi-mou instilled visual appeal of ballet into the novel, and endeavor towards ballet nationalization was obvious in Raise the Red Lantern. When he adapted the novel to the film Raise the Red Lantern, ZHANG put more emphasis on presentation and the cultural connotations presented by the camera. He did not change the original narrative focus for the film, but the ballet shifted from the original perspective of Lord to his third wife and her previous lover. Usually, the narration of a ballet focuses on the chief male dancer and then the chief female dancer. Although Raise the Red Lantern still follows this convention and the original structure of the novel, the theme has been sublimated because of the change of the chief character. VIII. MEI Lan-fang: dramas in a drama and characters based on a character The ballet MEI Lan-fang is choreographed by FU Xing-bang, a Chinese Canadian(music by LIU Tingyu). In the ballet, four female dancers dance pas de deux with the protagonist MEI Lan-fang successively. They are the main roles MEI Lan-fang played in Peking opera, namely the Yu-ji, ZHAO Yan-yong, YANG Yuhuan(concubines), and MU Gui-ying the female general. Strictly speaking, the four female roles are fictive characters and can be interpreted by the audience as the incarnation of MEI Lan-fang. In this sense, the pas de deux in the ballet is danced by the real MEI Lan-fang and the symbolic MEI Lan-fang, so its plot is a drama containing dramas, and the characters are based on one character. The pas de deux between the real MEI Lanfang and his dramatic roles constitutes the core structure of the ballet, which makes the ballet a real dance drama. This unique structure means that the motif of ballet does not rest on one movement or a group of specific movements, but features the interactive relations between the protagonist and his female roles. However, this mere interactive relationship would fall short of the need to depict the personality of MEI Lan-fang. To this end, the choreographer uses variants: the comparison between MEI Lan-fang and Chaplin, and the dialogue between MEI Lan-fang and his inner self. The variants lift the motif in terms of both form and taste.IX. Moon Reflected on the Second Spring: formalization of ballet and nationalized characterization The ballet Moon Reflected on the Second Spring was first performed at the end of 1997 by Liaoning Ballet and has been revised four times since then. The first version follows the two themes and five variations of the Erhu solo in the same name. It has four scenes: Sweet Memory of Playing Erhu upon the Lake, Bitterness in the Old House, Passion under the Moon, and Pain of Elegy. To present the Chinese character of A-bing in the western art of ballet, the choreographer designed a tragic conflict with Chinese characteristics. The scene when Yue-er was drown in the lake and A-bing was blinded revealed the cruelty of the dehumanizing feudal forces, which was the unique motive of characterization. In this sense, the ballet pursues the Chinese way of characterization in ballet. Second, the ballet music began and ended with the Erhu solo. Third, in building up the atmosphere, the ballet created an environment made of physical objects and yet transcending physical objects. According to WANG Xun-yi, head of Liaoning Ballet, the revised version of the ballet by MEN Wenyuan and LIU Jun had significant adjustments in terms of plot structure, conflicts, setting, and characterization, giving the tragedy a stronger shock. The protagonist had a stronger character and unyielding spirit, and a new role was added to the ballet: an Ancient mother who represented the feudal forces. She was hypocritical and cruel. However, as a "mother", the character has a fuller and stronger artistic appeal. In addition, the new edition also emphasized the close relationship between the protagonist and the community, enhancing the image of the protagonist as a "folk musician."X. Return on a Snowy Night: a new direction and accomplishment of the nationalization of ballet The ballet Return on a Snowy Night was first performed by Guangzhou Ballet in 2009(Director: CHEN Jian-li; choreography: FU Xing-bang; Music: FA N G M i n g). I n t h e p l a y o f t h e s a m e t i t l e, t h e protagonist was WEI Lian-sheng, an actor playing a female role in Chinese opera, who had a close male friend, LI Rong-shen. In the ballet, the male friend was changed to a female aid and silent lover of the actor. This change does not aim to create a love affair; instead, in the ballet, the female character represented the pure humanity and remained a witness to the love of Lian-sheng and Yu-chun. In this ballet, critic LIU Xiao-zhen has noticed a tendency of ballet creation in China: "In this era when schools of artistic creation proliferate, Return on a Snowy Night is a good sign of return to realism. Compared with ballet creation based on contemporary novels in the 1980 s, Return on a Snowy Night does not substitute psychological movements for the plot development. Instead, the ballet follows the original plot and reproduces the psychological reality with body language." In short, if we compare creations in the 1990 s such as Raise the Red Lantern, MEI Lanfang, Moon Reflected on the Second Spring, and Return on a Snowy Night with the 1980 s creations like Blessing, Thunderstorm, Family, and LIN Dai-yu, we can find the new trend, new pursuit, and accomplishment in nationalizing the ballet.Summary: entering into the fourth period of ballet in China The ten contemporary Chinese ballets this paper reviews can be divided into three periods.Creations in the first period are The Red Detachment of Women and The White-haired Girl, which are "revolutionary ballets." They are revolutionary both in terms of content and art form.The second period has Blessing, LIN Dai-yu, Thunderstorm, and Family. LIN Dai-yu is based on a classical novel, while the other three are based on modern and contemporary literature. They were created in the 1980 s, soon after China entered the new era of reform and opening up. While the ideological background for the first period of ballet creation emphasised revolutionary, national, and educational needs, the background of the second period was a document issued in 1979 that reiterated the need to promote art development to meet public needs. The motif, however, still focused on class struggle and the impact of feudalism on humanity. In this sense, LIN Dai-yu shares the same fate with Sister Xiang-lin(Blessing), Fan-yi(Thunderstorm), and Mingfeng(Family). Psychological presentation of Chinese ballet based on the narrative framework and the ideology communicated.The third period has Raise the Red Lantern, MEI Lan-fang, Moon Reflected on the Second Spring, and Return on a Snowy Night(after the mid-1990 s). The difference with the previous ballets is that they highlight the male dancer as the chief dancer in the ballet, as in MEI Lan-fang, Moon Reflected on the Second Spring, and Return on a Snowy Night. The second point is that MEI Lan-fang, Moon Reflected on the Second Spring, and Raise the Red Lantern featured elements of Peking opera and departed from modern literary classics. MEI Lan-fang and Moon Reflected on the Second Spring paid tribute to Chinese modern artists through original creation rather than adaptation.In the future, the focus will fall on teamwork and individuality, as mentioned earlier, which will be the aim of Chinese ballet development in its fourth period.
Introduction: creation experiment from The Dove of Peace to The Fish Beauty In September 1950, the dance troupe of the Central Academy of Drama staged a grand ballet: The Dove of Peace. The title suggests a marked connection between the ballet and the Western classics The Swan Lake. It was the first attempt of staging a grand ballet in China. Integrating the merits of classical ballet from Western Europe, the swans catering to the aristocratic taste were replaced with doves that the general folk love. Throughout the ballet, The Dove of Peace, as the lead dancer, is in constant conflict with war mongers. The ballet copies swans in a parallel form — doves, while the image embodies lofty ideas and concepts. However, the audience did not care about the ideas or concepts but rather complained that the performance was a mere movement of legs and would corrupt the military and peasant audience.In the 1950 s, W. Y. Cholin and Pyotr Gusev, from the Soviet Union, taught a choreography class in Beijing Dance School. From 1955 to 1957, Choplin revised The Useless Precaution, the classic of narrative ballet; from 1957 to 1959, Gusev not only revised The Swan Lake, but also led his students of the choreography class to compose The Fish Beauty which was intended as an experiment to explore the development of Chinese ballet and the establishment of a new ballet: a classical ballet integrating Chinese classical dance and Western ballet. However, China's first ballet was The Red Detachment of Women, which came after The Fish Beauty.I. The Red Detachment of Women: a revolution in ballet The proposal to adapt The Red Detachment of Women(Choreography: LI Cheng-xiang, JIANG Zu-hui, and WANG Xi-xian) from a movie into a ballet was first of all an answer to the call of Premier ZHOU to create ballets on revolutionary themes. Second, the movie highlighted the Marxian class theory and revolutionary war, so it had a great influence at that time. As for the process of creation, the choreographer LI Cheng-xiang said: The rehearsal of The Red Detachment of Women represents, in fact, the growth of creative and artistic thinking. It is also an innovation on traditional ballet. The Red Detachment of Women tells the stories of the proletarian revolution, and the characters are fervent communists. In terms of content, it is a revolutionary ballet. They have followed the following principles. They start with the story and characters, and adapt the inherent stylistic characteristics of ballet and its skills to fit with the Chinese folk dance. At the same time, this ballet is based on real life and creates a new dance discourse. In terms of inheritance, they've followed the rules of ballet. A large number of ballet movements, like tiptoe movements, twisting and jumping are used. About skills and body movements, the tight body and turnout are insisted. They also respect the feelings of new characters and strive to break through the limit of the traditional gestures and styles of ballet. They abandon the aristocratic style of posturing and adopt new gestures and body shapes based on real life so that it can express the cheerful and high-spirited emotions of the working people. A new action vocabulary is added to the ballet discourse. The Red Detachment of Women premiered in Beijing in 1964. It consisted of three acts and six scenes, together with a prelude and an interlude. Commenting on the ballet, LONG Yin-pei said in a paper, "The ballet The Red Detachment of Women is a successful enrichment and development of ballet. It has laid the foundation for the Chinese school of ballet."II. The White-haired Girl: creating a new form of ballet The White-haired Girl(Music: YAN Jin-xuan; Choreography: HU Rong-rong, FU Ai-dai, CHENG Dai-hui, and LIN Yang-yang) is based on the story of a girl called Xi-er who was forced to become a white-haired girl and then claimed her justice. It elaborated the literary theme that in the old society people were forced into the hell, and the new society brought them back to the human world. In order to help the audience appreciate the ballet, the choreographers combined abstraction and reality. In terms of drama structure, they managed to achieve coherence, structure, and clarity. In particular, they were bold enough to break the ballet rule by adding dialogues. They even added some vocal accompaniments, creating a new form of ballet which not only shortened the distance between the audience and dancers, but also stimulated the enthusiasm of the dancers. Besides keeping some pieces of the original music, the ballet adds quite a lot of songs in solo, ensemble, unison, and chorus, including popular revolutionary songs in the Anti-Japanese War period, which gives the ballet more realism and creates a stronger response from the audience.III. Blessing: starting psychological description in Chinese ballet In 1981, to celebrate the 100 th anniversary of LU Xun's birth, a series of dance dramas based on the literary works of LU Xun were created and performed, of which the most notable was Blessing(Choreography: JIANG Zu-hui; Music: LIU Ting-yu) by the National Ballet of China. ZHOU Wei-lun pointed out that LU Xun's novel Blessing portrayed the history in great depth with realistic descriptions. The heroine Sister Xiang-lin, a badly hurt and insulted woman, is a typical image of Chinese suffering heart-breaking spiritual trauma. The choreographer reproduced the novel in the form of a ballet, which laid a solid foundation for the nationalization of foreign art forms. It has been proved that a national theme, a national character and realism are indispensable factors of ballet nationalization. YANG Shao-pu spoke highly of the ballet. He said, "Blessing is the first dance drama in China dedicated to psychological description in the 1980 s. It is an early and yet major attempt of psychological description in ballet. It is the result of choreographers' explorations over the past decades. Blessing has continued the international fashion of psychological description in ballet. One of the characteristics of Blessing is the expression of Chinese style. It reveals the psychological changes with emotional progression step by step, so that we can see how consideration, sympathy, and mutual understanding affect the transition and development of the hero and heroine." He also believes that the Chinese ethics and implicitness is highlighted on the stage and finally resolves the challenge of presenting the inner world of two characters.IV. LIN Dai-yu: poeticizing dramatic factors in ballet LIN Dai-yu(Music: SHI Fu; Choreography: LI Cheng-xiang and WANG Shi-qi) began as a small dancedrama The Death of Dai-yu which was later expanded into a four-act drama. Commenting on the ballet, HU Er-yan once said, "Its structure is a prose, characterized by its emphasis on expression and the psychological description of the characters. It conveys feelings through plot twists. It is a complete drama, to some extent." HU Er-yan also pointed out that the fourth act was based on the psychological development of Dai-yu, occasionally interspersed with irrational flows of consciousness. As a result, while creating a scattered sense without chaos, this act offers a clear structure of psychology and consciousness and reveals extremely delicate feelings. It is like a psychological description in a poem where Dai-yu has more space and time for her emotional play. According to LI Cheng-xiang and WANG Shi-qi, this act is the most free and unrestrained, poetic and purest dance. The traditional and modern aesthetics are most naturally blended. As LI Cheng-xiang summed up, the ballet LIN Dai-yu goes against one of his own creation dogmas, taking one step forward: It poeticizes the drama where reality gives way to emotional expression. He noted that, as the scene was an antithesis to love affairs and the sweet romance of wedding, Dai-yu's tragic death was unfit to be the climax, so he used the stream-of-consciousness technique, reversing the time line of the original story, breaking down the boundary of space and time. Instead, he presented the strong love between Bao-yu and Daiyu in a pas de-deux. The wedding scene also comes to the stage following Dai-yu's random thoughts, and Daiyu even illogically appears in the wedding scene, thus making a trio of Dai-yu, Bao-yu, and Bao-chai. LI Cheng-xiang believed that this creates the mixture of the present and the past, as well as different environment factors. Therefore, it avoids segmenting plots so that the dance is a coherent unity and the character's inner world is more fully displayed.V. Thunderstorm: reproducing a play in a ballet The drama Thunderstorm was first adapted into a three-act ballet by HU Rong-rong, LIN Xin-ge, and YANG Xiao-min of Shanghai Ballet(Music: YE Chunzhi). In order to be faithful to the original and meet the requirements of ballet, one of the innovations was to compress the first two acts into one so that the ballet would be more concentrated and compact. The second was to bring stories behind the scene onto the stage. And the third was to increase the prologue to highlight the tryst between the protagonists ZHOU Ping and Fan-yi, which was a concise approach to tell the love affair between the two characters. In addition, hallucinations were used to show the relationships between characters. TANG Mancheng's comment was that the choreographer adopted a completely realistic approach. With exquisite lifelike details, the ballet reproduced the structure of the drama and the relationships between the characters. In other words, the project has reproduced the drama completely in a ballet. The critic noted that of the four acts, three took place in the living room of the ZHOU family. Ballet is popularly considered an abstract language, but Thunderstorm used real time and space skillfully to form an organic whole. It also showed different personalities accurately, including their intricate and sharp conflicts in a lot of details that seemed impossible to present in dance at all. For instance, quarrels between ZHOU Ping and Fan-yi were reproduced through the dancers' body movements. TANG Man-cheng recognized that the ballet had a concrete and profound content, but it did not turn into a realistic mime. A lot of skills were used to preserve the beauty of ballet. It has many successful attempts worthy of study.VI. Family: "a symphony of fate" composed of "features"The ballet Family was based on a long novel with a great many characters and events. The reproduction of emotions and psychological movements was realistic but not sufficient or natural enough, while the prologue was a symbolic account of the relationships between characters and their fates. According to choreographer LIN Lianrong, the ballet began with the black door of the high courtyard opening slowly in the sullen gongs. A group of dancers in black came onto the stage representing the feudal dark forces and showing the dominating power of the patriarchal head of the family, Lord GAO. Then the light casts on the two young characters Mei and Jue-xin who showed their love through pas de deux. Then Lord GAO appeared again and pointed to a lady in bridal dress. Immediately, the black dancers separated Jue-xin and Mei, pushing Jue-xin to the bride. Jue-xin begged, but in vain. With a heavy gesture, Lord GAO hushed Jue-xin, Mei, and the bride. Jue-xin and the bride knelt for the wedding while Mei retreated. Composed of a series of feature dances, the ballet played a symphony of the fate of characters. According to Master FU Zhao-xian, the ballet explored the new structure of dance drama. Looking deeply into the psychology of characters, the ballet used symbolic techniques to present emotional infections and enlightenment. The psychological movements of characters made up the main structure of scenes which were not connected, but the meaning of the ballet was unified, clean, concentrated, and concise. Unlike Master FU, the choreographer LIN Lian-rong focuses more on the action design and the portrayal of relationships. The spirit was reproduced, transcending the reality of dance movements. VII. Raise the Red Lantern: reproducing the visual taste of dance drama The screenwriter and director of the ballet Raise the Red Lantern is ZHANG Yi-mou the famous film director. China's current weakness in dance drama creation, especially in ballet creation, makes ZHANG Yi-mou a good partner for Central Ballet. The ballet Raise the Red Lantern shows that ZHANG Yi-mou can very well make up for the weakness. The ballet critic YANG Shao-pu said, ZHANG is good at mobilizing various artistic means for comprehensive treatment. For example, the first act was pas de deux in shadow play, and then the dancers ran through the paper screen and chase each other. The props are very skillfully used, such as a piece of red silk covering a woman raped by Lord, his third wife. The final scene is especially brilliant: A white wall stands in the back of the stage and becomes bloody as it is thrashed by the servants, while the three victims keep dancing and rolling on the floor. It is a bold innovation and produces a pleasant shock. After over two years of performance and revision, the ballet shifts the narrative focus of the original novel Wives and Concubines and sublimates the theme. ZHANG Yi-mou instilled visual appeal of ballet into the novel, and endeavor towards ballet nationalization was obvious in Raise the Red Lantern. When he adapted the novel to the film Raise the Red Lantern, ZHANG put more emphasis on presentation and the cultural connotations presented by the camera. He did not change the original narrative focus for the film, but the ballet shifted from the original perspective of Lord to his third wife and her previous lover. Usually, the narration of a ballet focuses on the chief male dancer and then the chief female dancer. Although Raise the Red Lantern still follows this convention and the original structure of the novel, the theme has been sublimated because of the change of the chief character. VIII. MEI Lan-fang: dramas in a drama and characters based on a character The ballet MEI Lan-fang is choreographed by FU Xing-bang, a Chinese Canadian(music by LIU Tingyu). In the ballet, four female dancers dance pas de deux with the protagonist MEI Lan-fang successively. They are the main roles MEI Lan-fang played in Peking opera, namely the Yu-ji, ZHAO Yan-yong, YANG Yuhuan(concubines), and MU Gui-ying the female general. Strictly speaking, the four female roles are fictive characters and can be interpreted by the audience as the incarnation of MEI Lan-fang. In this sense, the pas de deux in the ballet is danced by the real MEI Lan-fang and the symbolic MEI Lan-fang, so its plot is a drama containing dramas, and the characters are based on one character. The pas de deux between the real MEI Lanfang and his dramatic roles constitutes the core structure of the ballet, which makes the ballet a real dance drama. This unique structure means that the motif of ballet does not rest on one movement or a group of specific movements, but features the interactive relations between the protagonist and his female roles. However, this mere interactive relationship would fall short of the need to depict the personality of MEI Lan-fang. To this end, the choreographer uses variants: the comparison between MEI Lan-fang and Chaplin, and the dialogue between MEI Lan-fang and his inner self. The variants lift the motif in terms of both form and taste.IX. Moon Reflected on the Second Spring: formalization of ballet and nationalized characterization The ballet Moon Reflected on the Second Spring was first performed at the end of 1997 by Liaoning Ballet and has been revised four times since then. The first version follows the two themes and five variations of the Erhu solo in the same name. It has four scenes: Sweet Memory of Playing Erhu upon the Lake, Bitterness in the Old House, Passion under the Moon, and Pain of Elegy. To present the Chinese character of A-bing in the western art of ballet, the choreographer designed a tragic conflict with Chinese characteristics. The scene when Yue-er was drown in the lake and A-bing was blinded revealed the cruelty of the dehumanizing feudal forces, which was the unique motive of characterization. In this sense, the ballet pursues the Chinese way of characterization in ballet. Second, the ballet music began and ended with the Erhu solo. Third, in building up the atmosphere, the ballet created an environment made of physical objects and yet transcending physical objects. According to WANG Xun-yi, head of Liaoning Ballet, the revised version of the ballet by MEN Wenyuan and LIU Jun had significant adjustments in terms of plot structure, conflicts, setting, and characterization, giving the tragedy a stronger shock. The protagonist had a stronger character and unyielding spirit, and a new role was added to the ballet: an Ancient mother who represented the feudal forces. She was hypocritical and cruel. However, as a "mother", the character has a fuller and stronger artistic appeal. In addition, the new edition also emphasized the close relationship between the protagonist and the community, enhancing the image of the protagonist as a "folk musician."X. Return on a Snowy Night: a new direction and accomplishment of the nationalization of ballet The ballet Return on a Snowy Night was first performed by Guangzhou Ballet in 2009(Director: CHEN Jian-li; choreography: FU Xing-bang; Music: FA N G M i n g). I n t h e p l a y o f t h e s a m e t i t l e, t h e protagonist was WEI Lian-sheng, an actor playing a female role in Chinese opera, who had a close male friend, LI Rong-shen. In the ballet, the male friend was changed to a female aid and silent lover of the actor. This change does not aim to create a love affair; instead, in the ballet, the female character represented the pure humanity and remained a witness to the love of Lian-sheng and Yu-chun. In this ballet, critic LIU Xiao-zhen has noticed a tendency of ballet creation in China: "In this era when schools of artistic creation proliferate, Return on a Snowy Night is a good sign of return to realism. Compared with ballet creation based on contemporary novels in the 1980 s, Return on a Snowy Night does not substitute psychological movements for the plot development. Instead, the ballet follows the original plot and reproduces the psychological reality with body language." In short, if we compare creations in the 1990 s such as Raise the Red Lantern, MEI Lanfang, Moon Reflected on the Second Spring, and Return on a Snowy Night with the 1980 s creations like Blessing, Thunderstorm, Family, and LIN Dai-yu, we can find the new trend, new pursuit, and accomplishment in nationalizing the ballet.Summary: entering into the fourth period of ballet in China The ten contemporary Chinese ballets this paper reviews can be divided into three periods.Creations in the first period are The Red Detachment of Women and The White-haired Girl, which are "revolutionary ballets." They are revolutionary both in terms of content and art form.The second period has Blessing, LIN Dai-yu, Thunderstorm, and Family. LIN Dai-yu is based on a classical novel, while the other three are based on modern and contemporary literature. They were created in the 1980 s, soon after China entered the new era of reform and opening up. While the ideological background for the first period of ballet creation emphasised revolutionary, national, and educational needs, the background of the second period was a document issued in 1979 that reiterated the need to promote art development to meet public needs. The motif, however, still focused on class struggle and the impact of feudalism on humanity. In this sense, LIN Dai-yu shares the same fate with Sister Xiang-lin(Blessing), Fan-yi(Thunderstorm), and Mingfeng(Family). Psychological presentation of Chinese ballet based on the narrative framework and the ideology communicated.The third period has Raise the Red Lantern, MEI Lan-fang, Moon Reflected on the Second Spring, and Return on a Snowy Night(after the mid-1990 s). The difference with the previous ballets is that they highlight the male dancer as the chief dancer in the ballet, as in MEI Lan-fang, Moon Reflected on the Second Spring, and Return on a Snowy Night. The second point is that MEI Lan-fang, Moon Reflected on the Second Spring, and Raise the Red Lantern featured elements of Peking opera and departed from modern literary classics. MEI Lan-fang and Moon Reflected on the Second Spring paid tribute to Chinese modern artists through original creation rather than adaptation.In the future, the focus will fall on teamwork and individuality, as mentioned earlier, which will be the aim of Chinese ballet development in its fourth period.
引文
[1]秦之.革命的艺术,战斗的行动[N].北京日报,1965—05—29(3).
[2]李承祥.古谢夫的舞剧编导艺术:与舞剧《鱼美人》创作者的谈话[J].舞蹈,1997(6):49—51.
[3]李承祥.《红色娘子军》四十年[J].舞蹈,2004(3):4—7.
[4]李承祥.破旧创新,为发展中国风格的芭蕾舞剧而努力:《红色娘子军》创作经验[M]//文化部艺术局,中国艺术研究院舞蹈研究所.舞蹈舞剧创作经验文集.北京:人民音乐出版社,1985.
[5]隆荫培.沿着革命化民族化群众化的道路前进:谈芭蕾舞剧《红色娘子军》的艺术成就[N].羊城晚报,1964—10—26(3).
[6]上海芭蕾舞团艺术室.一颗永放异彩的艺术明珠:写于芭蕾舞剧〈白毛女〉创作演出廿周年[M]//文化部艺术局,中国艺术研究院舞蹈研究所.舞蹈舞剧创作经验文集.北京:人民音乐出版社,1985.
[7]吴情.歌剧和舞剧《白毛女》的吊诡[J].扬子江评论,2013(2):28—32.
[8]高旭东,蒋永影.《白毛女》:从民间本事到歌剧、电影、京剧、舞剧:兼论在文体演变中革命叙事对民间叙事的渗透[J].文艺研究,2016(5):91—100.
[9]鸿昀.“二位一体”视域下的当代芭蕾舞剧经典:《白毛女》[J].星海音乐学院学报,2004(3):36—45.
[10]周威仑.这是我们自己的芭蕾:《祝福》民族化断想[J].舞蹈,1981(4):4.
[11]蒋祖慧.我是怎样编《祝福》二幕中的双人舞的[J].舞蹈艺术,1984(6):76—77.
[12]杨少莆.祥林嫂的人生转折:回顾舞剧《祝福》谈中国芭蕾创作[J].舞蹈,1997(5):22—24.
[13]胡尔岩.《林黛玉》:散文诗式的舞剧结构[J].舞蹈,1982(5):32.
[14]胡尔岩.试论从文学作品到舞剧的改编:谈芭蕾舞剧《林黛玉》的得与失[J].舞蹈论丛,1983(1):31.
[15]胡尔岩.舞蹈创作心理学[M].上海:上海音乐出版社,2016:116—117.
[16]李承祥.舞剧的魅力:舞剧创作研讨会后的思考[J].舞蹈论丛,1989(1):7.
[17]何士雄.在探索中前进:评芭蕾舞剧《雷雨》[J].舞蹈,1982(1):21.
[18]《雷雨》创作组.芭蕾民族化的新尝试[M]//文化部艺术局,中国艺术研究院舞蹈研究所.舞蹈舞剧创作经验文集.北京:人民音乐出版社,1985:556—558.
[19]唐满城.芭蕾舞剧《雷雨》观后[J].舞蹈论丛,1983(3):13—18.
[20]林莲蓉.在实践中学习:创作舞剧《家》的点滴体会[J].舞蹈,1983(2):7—24.
[21]傅兆先.炼狱与圣殿中的欢笑:傅兆先舞学文选集[M].北京:中国青年出版社,2001:173—175.
[22]于平.当“大红灯笼”高挂中国芭坛之际[N].光明日报,2001—05—16(3).
[23]杨少莆.舞剧创作的目的和意义:评析《大红灯笼高高挂》[J].舞蹈,2001(3):15—16.
[24]于平.芭蕾舞剧《大红灯笼高高挂》的形式意味[J].舞蹈,2003(11):13—15.
[25]于平.《梅兰芳》用芭蕾舞剧演绎国剧大师[J].舞蹈,2001(5):17—18.
[26]胡尔岩.我心中的至尊:芭蕾舞剧《梅兰芳》创作谈[J].舞蹈,2001(5):19—20.
[27]于平.从“二胡独奏”到“芭蕾交响”:大型芭蕾舞剧《二泉映月》观后[N].中国文化报,1998—02—28(3).
[28]王训益.为了芭蕾艺术在中华大地上的传承与发展:《二泉映月》创作随想[J].舞蹈,2007(3):22—23.
[29]欧建平.“戏剧芭蕾”的上乘之作:评辽芭全新打造的《二泉映月》[J].舞蹈,2007(3):24—25.
[30]刘晓真.“回归”的《风雪夜归人》[J].舞蹈,2010(4):26—27.
(1)会后成立了主创团队,作曲是吴祖强、杜鸣心、戴宏威、施万春、王燕樵,编导是李承祥、蒋祖慧、王锡贤,舞台美术设计是马运洪。
(2)旧芭蕾舞主要是为了塑造西方王宫贵族们的形象,表现其历史和神话中的爱情传说。而芭蕾舞剧《红色娘子军》则是选用无产阶级革命斗争的题材,剧中人物闪耀着共产主义的思想光辉。
(3)第一部分总的情绪是祥林嫂要走,贺老六挽留,蒋祖慧便大量运用中段、举扶和地上扶的动作,动作变化大、密度大、强度大。第二部分,祥林嫂由“一定要走”到“有所转变”,内心矛盾的斗争很激烈也很痛苦;贺老六由“执意要留”到预感留不住祥林嫂,内心也很痛苦,而蒋祖慧借鉴吉剧《包公赔情》的导演手法,取其以“静”为主、以“慢”取胜。第三部分,主要表现经过最后的思想斗争,祥林嫂终于被贺老六感动而决定留下来。这段舞蹈由两部分构成:在表现祥林嫂思想斗争过程时,仍然采用《包公赔情》的“静场”手法;当祥林嫂终于被感动,表明愿意留下来之后,则采用以连续托举组合为主的办法,使动作流畅而又不脱离人物感情。
[2]李承祥.古谢夫的舞剧编导艺术:与舞剧《鱼美人》创作者的谈话[J].舞蹈,1997(6):49—51.
[3]李承祥.《红色娘子军》四十年[J].舞蹈,2004(3):4—7.
[4]李承祥.破旧创新,为发展中国风格的芭蕾舞剧而努力:《红色娘子军》创作经验[M]//文化部艺术局,中国艺术研究院舞蹈研究所.舞蹈舞剧创作经验文集.北京:人民音乐出版社,1985.
[5]隆荫培.沿着革命化民族化群众化的道路前进:谈芭蕾舞剧《红色娘子军》的艺术成就[N].羊城晚报,1964—10—26(3).
[6]上海芭蕾舞团艺术室.一颗永放异彩的艺术明珠:写于芭蕾舞剧〈白毛女〉创作演出廿周年[M]//文化部艺术局,中国艺术研究院舞蹈研究所.舞蹈舞剧创作经验文集.北京:人民音乐出版社,1985.
[7]吴情.歌剧和舞剧《白毛女》的吊诡[J].扬子江评论,2013(2):28—32.
[8]高旭东,蒋永影.《白毛女》:从民间本事到歌剧、电影、京剧、舞剧:兼论在文体演变中革命叙事对民间叙事的渗透[J].文艺研究,2016(5):91—100.
[9]鸿昀.“二位一体”视域下的当代芭蕾舞剧经典:《白毛女》[J].星海音乐学院学报,2004(3):36—45.
[10]周威仑.这是我们自己的芭蕾:《祝福》民族化断想[J].舞蹈,1981(4):4.
[11]蒋祖慧.我是怎样编《祝福》二幕中的双人舞的[J].舞蹈艺术,1984(6):76—77.
[12]杨少莆.祥林嫂的人生转折:回顾舞剧《祝福》谈中国芭蕾创作[J].舞蹈,1997(5):22—24.
[13]胡尔岩.《林黛玉》:散文诗式的舞剧结构[J].舞蹈,1982(5):32.
[14]胡尔岩.试论从文学作品到舞剧的改编:谈芭蕾舞剧《林黛玉》的得与失[J].舞蹈论丛,1983(1):31.
[15]胡尔岩.舞蹈创作心理学[M].上海:上海音乐出版社,2016:116—117.
[16]李承祥.舞剧的魅力:舞剧创作研讨会后的思考[J].舞蹈论丛,1989(1):7.
[17]何士雄.在探索中前进:评芭蕾舞剧《雷雨》[J].舞蹈,1982(1):21.
[18]《雷雨》创作组.芭蕾民族化的新尝试[M]//文化部艺术局,中国艺术研究院舞蹈研究所.舞蹈舞剧创作经验文集.北京:人民音乐出版社,1985:556—558.
[19]唐满城.芭蕾舞剧《雷雨》观后[J].舞蹈论丛,1983(3):13—18.
[20]林莲蓉.在实践中学习:创作舞剧《家》的点滴体会[J].舞蹈,1983(2):7—24.
[21]傅兆先.炼狱与圣殿中的欢笑:傅兆先舞学文选集[M].北京:中国青年出版社,2001:173—175.
[22]于平.当“大红灯笼”高挂中国芭坛之际[N].光明日报,2001—05—16(3).
[23]杨少莆.舞剧创作的目的和意义:评析《大红灯笼高高挂》[J].舞蹈,2001(3):15—16.
[24]于平.芭蕾舞剧《大红灯笼高高挂》的形式意味[J].舞蹈,2003(11):13—15.
[25]于平.《梅兰芳》用芭蕾舞剧演绎国剧大师[J].舞蹈,2001(5):17—18.
[26]胡尔岩.我心中的至尊:芭蕾舞剧《梅兰芳》创作谈[J].舞蹈,2001(5):19—20.
[27]于平.从“二胡独奏”到“芭蕾交响”:大型芭蕾舞剧《二泉映月》观后[N].中国文化报,1998—02—28(3).
[28]王训益.为了芭蕾艺术在中华大地上的传承与发展:《二泉映月》创作随想[J].舞蹈,2007(3):22—23.
[29]欧建平.“戏剧芭蕾”的上乘之作:评辽芭全新打造的《二泉映月》[J].舞蹈,2007(3):24—25.
[30]刘晓真.“回归”的《风雪夜归人》[J].舞蹈,2010(4):26—27.
(1)会后成立了主创团队,作曲是吴祖强、杜鸣心、戴宏威、施万春、王燕樵,编导是李承祥、蒋祖慧、王锡贤,舞台美术设计是马运洪。
(2)旧芭蕾舞主要是为了塑造西方王宫贵族们的形象,表现其历史和神话中的爱情传说。而芭蕾舞剧《红色娘子军》则是选用无产阶级革命斗争的题材,剧中人物闪耀着共产主义的思想光辉。
(3)第一部分总的情绪是祥林嫂要走,贺老六挽留,蒋祖慧便大量运用中段、举扶和地上扶的动作,动作变化大、密度大、强度大。第二部分,祥林嫂由“一定要走”到“有所转变”,内心矛盾的斗争很激烈也很痛苦;贺老六由“执意要留”到预感留不住祥林嫂,内心也很痛苦,而蒋祖慧借鉴吉剧《包公赔情》的导演手法,取其以“静”为主、以“慢”取胜。第三部分,主要表现经过最后的思想斗争,祥林嫂终于被贺老六感动而决定留下来。这段舞蹈由两部分构成:在表现祥林嫂思想斗争过程时,仍然采用《包公赔情》的“静场”手法;当祥林嫂终于被感动,表明愿意留下来之后,则采用以连续托举组合为主的办法,使动作流畅而又不脱离人物感情。