Dancing to Show Beautiful Life
2 min readDances are pulses of life and should show beautiful life -displaying the personality of life, releasing the emotion of life and manifesting the philosophy of life.The new period provides new opportunities for dances’ development more conducive to showing the aesthetic essence of dances, enriching aesthetic concepts of dancing and at the same time showcasing modern people’s diversified states of existence.
Chinese modern dances have gone beyond traditional categories, changed traditional forms, and displayed the personality of life more sufficiently.
At the 2005 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, the dance Thousand-armed Avalokitesvara performed by the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe gave people unique visual enjoyment and shook their souls.21 young deaf-mute performers shaped a resplendent image of “Thousand-armed Avalokitesvara”, and created an incessant and changeful visual impact. During the performance, four sign language teachers stood on the four corners of the stage and expressed musical rhythms in sign language, and the performers followed them and danced gracefully. The dance thoroughly displayed the living personality of these girls living in the silent world.
Dances release the emotion of life. This everlasting characteristic is fully demonstrated by the modern female solo dance Spirit of the Peacock.
Spirit of the Peacock choreographed and performed by the famous dancer Yang Liping debuted in 1986. Spirit of the Peacock did not just personify peacocks because their standing, jumping, spinning and flying all had abundant spiritual connotations.The dancer’s arms quivered softly as if they were boneless, let the passion of life burst in tenderness and grace, and actually released the emotion of life. Yang Liping danced superbly in Spirit of the Peacock, but its artistic charm did not just lie in dancing skills.
Though dancing is bodily art and skills to a large extent determine the performance level, the aesthetic feeling brought by artistic perceptibility and expressiveness to aesthetic targets is more important. For example, the fundamental reason why the famous Russian ballet dancer Pavlova was considered one of the greatest dancers of the 2oth century was her unique artistic perceptibility and expressiveness. Her representative work The Dying Swan was as pure and noble as herself. Though numerous actresses have performed this dance, people still think that Pavlova’s performance was the best and that she was a reincarnation of the swan. Just like Pavlova was the “swan”, Yang Liping was the “peacock”. The reason was that Yang Liping poured out all her feelings on the peacock she played: the “peacock”played by Yang Liping had not only life, but also soul; could not only stand, jump, spin and fly, but also express happiness, anger, grief and joy. Spirit of the Peacock was Yang Liping’s dance of life.
Today, China’s dancing circles are facing a transition and exploring how to gain a steady foothold in the increasingly segmented artistic market. Plenty of talented dancers are waiting for mature operation and creation. Fortunately, people’s love for dancing has not subsided. Chinese dances still have huge potential.
