Interpreting Chinese Romance with Ballet

On August 10, the Liaoning Ballet Company premiered its large-scale original ballet "Qixi Festival". Under the joint efforts of Chinese and foreign artists, the Liaoning Ballet Company and the Liaoning Symphony Orchestra staged a Chinese romantic love story that spans time and space for the audience at the Liaoning Grand Theater. On the minimalist stage, the Chinese mythology "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" tells the audience a touching love in the romantic atmosphere created by the live symphony performance, with imaginative ballet language such as jumping, spinning and lifting.

On August 10th, during the traditional Chinese festival Qixi Festival, the Liaoning Grand Theater was packed and the Liaoning Ballet's new large-scale original ballet "Qixi Festival" was officially premiered.

Accompanied by the French conductor Victor Jacobs and the Liaoning Symphony Orchestra's joint presentation of "Mountain Sky Light", the curtain rose slowly, and a Chinese story modelled on the love story of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" was presented on the stage in the form of neoclassical ballet.

In the white-toned stage space, there is a simple Chinese pavilion, two huge tree trunks horizontally, and a rectangular window of a modernist building becomes the background wall behind the stage. With the cooperation of lighting, the shadow of the tree swaying in the wind is displayed on the "window", showing people the environment in which the story takes place. With the skirt hidden to the right and the waist tightened, the ballet dancers began to dance to the music, and the long and light dance skirts at the hem fluttered in jumping and rotating. Like Chinese ink painting, the "white space" of the stage allows the audience to focus on the dancers. Modern and classical, Eastern and Western cultures collide and merge with each other to form a landscape.

"In order to tell the Chinese story well, we are presenting Chinese culture to the world in a way that Western audiences are happy to accept, which is the original intention of'Qixi Festival '." Qu Zijiao, the artistic director and head of Liaoning Ballet, said that nearly 10 foreign artists were specially invited to join the creation of the work in terms of stage design, costume design and lighting design. At the same time, the music is composed of classic works by well-known composers such as Ye Xiaogang, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, incorporating different interpretations of romance in Eastern and Western music to better show the theme of love.

The fusion of Eastern and Western cultures makes "Qixi Festival" performed on the evening of Qixi Festival more rich and unique cultural flavor. Off the stage, elderly couples, young couples, and couples with children, as the plot evolves, attentively appreciate every action of the actors.

Feng Chunqing, a resident of Shenyang who had grabbed tickets in advance to watch the opening performance, brought her daughter to watch the play. After the performance, Feng Chunqing still felt that she could not get enough of it. "I have seen the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl in traditional Chinese drama before, and this is the first time I have walked into the theater and enjoyed it up close. The stage tension of the actors and the grasp of the details of the movements and expressions made me feel the artistic beauty of ballet," Feng Chunqing said.

The full integration of Eastern and Western cultures is the highlight of "Qixi Festival", a large-scale original ballet. This play has created many "firsts" in the more than 40 years since the establishment of the Liao Pa Troupe - the first time to invite French artists as screenwriters and choreographers; the first time to invite foreign artists to participate in the creation of traditional Chinese dance dramas; the first time to re-integrate the works of the world's three famous composers and invite the Liaoning Symphony Orchestra to perform live.

The perfect fusion of modern multimedia stage technology and story plot makes "Qixi Festival" more innovative. In the second act, on the huge screen above the stage, the huge figure of the Queen Mother shows the majesty of the character. She quickly takes off the hairpin from her head and waves it, a galaxy created by lights appears on the stage, and the myth is presented in a clever way.

"Fresh, clear and elegant, these three words are my overall feeling after watching'Qixi Festival '." Song Guanlin, vice chairperson of the China Cultural Management Association and former party secretary and chairperson of China Oriental Performing Arts Group, commented.

Song Guanlin, as an authoritative expert in the industry, has been paying attention to the growth and changes of Liao Ba. Song Guanlin said that the creation and arrangement of the large-scale original ballet "Qixi Festival" is not only a display of Liao Ba and a combination of Chinese and Western artistic achievements, but also shows the cultural confidence of the Chinese people, the ability to use new dance expressions to tell Chinese stories well, and also shows the continuous innovation and breakthroughs of Liaoning literary and artistic workers in the field of art.

"Qixi Festival" opened with a cheerful group dance by the Cowherd and his companions, and the play of the Weaver Nymph and other fairies in the lake. Song Guanlin said that the French choreographer skillfully grasped the Chinese aesthetic characteristics, re-interpreted traditional Chinese folk tales with the help of Western dance languages, and skillfully integrated Eastern and Western cultures, laying a solid foundation for the play to "go global".

Song Guanlin has witnessed the growth and continuous progress of Liaoba. As a cultural calling card of Liaoning, he said, Liaoba has long been stable and far-reaching, and has been innovating through perseverance. In recent years, the creation and arrangement of a series of original dance dramas, including "Hua Mulan" and "Eight Women Throwing into the River", have allowed Liaoba to achieve "triple jump" and occupy a place on the Chinese and even the world stage. "I hope they can achieve greater results," Song Guanlin said.