The original dance poetry drama "Spring in Yangjialing" jointly produced by Beijing Dance Academy and the National Center for the Performing Arts completed its third round of performances at the Beijing Art Center from March 22nd to 31st. Since January this year, the entire crew has deeply summarized the feedback and experience from previous performances, carefully polished and improved the work, and strived to present a more perfect artistic effect.
The play was jointly created and staged by the National Center for the Performing Arts bda Youth Dance Company, Beijing Dance Academy Chinese Folk Dance Department, Creative College and Chinese Classical Dance Department. It brought together screenwriter Xu Rui, chief directors Zhang Xiaomei and Zhang Yunfeng, and composers Cheng Yuan and Xie Peng Waiting for first-line creative artists. The three chapters of "Thick Soil", "Break of Dawn" and "Eternal Life" use dance as a painting and painting as a dance, taking the audience back to Yan'an and looking back on those magnificent and prosperous years.
In this performance, the dance structure of the play has been carefully adjusted to better demonstrate the coherence and depth of the plot. This revision highlights the images of the four artists and makes them appear throughout the dance drama, thus placing the three chapters of the drama in a more unified historical time and space, greatly enhancing the completeness and emotional intensity of the story. In terms of character creation, the crew also put a lot of effort into it. The length of the two characters "Printmaker" and "Little Warrior" has been increased, and wonderful "interludes" have been arranged for them, making the emotional and story lines more complete. In the third act, the crew cleverly changed the "sacrificial" protagonist from a young soldier to a printmaker. This change further highlights the lofty oath of literary and artistic workers to use their blood and lives to "serve the people" and embodies the Yan’an’s literary and artistic spirit is immortal.
In addition, the crew also actively cooperated with the Central Academy of Fine Arts to highlight "printmaking", the most important art form and publicity form during the Yan'an period. A team of teachers from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts made a special trip to Yangjialing, Yan'an to collect the scenery and created a print of the same name "Spring in Yangjialing". They integrated landmark buildings such as Pagoda Mountain, the site of the Seventh Congress, and the former residence of educated youths in Liangjiahe into contemporary printmaking, adding new highlights to the stage art of the play. In terms of the comprehensive presentation of the work, the crew also made comprehensive modifications and improvements to the music, stage design, multimedia, props, costumes, etc. Through this series of meticulous craftsmanship, "Spring in Yangjialing" has not only been greatly improved in terms of artistry, but has also been sublimated and extended in connotation and emotion.
In order to better absorb opinions from many parties and polish the artistic masterpiece, after the performances on March 29th and 30th, the original dance poetry drama "Spring in Yangjialing" held an expert seminar. The meeting had a heated discussion around the theme, choreography and stage presentation of the work.
It is reported that the play will be staged again at the National Center for the Performing Arts from May 9th to 12th. The crew will make further modifications and polishing based on the opinions of experts.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Tian Wanting
editor/Qiao Ying
