Our reporter Zheng Na

　　The lights of Shangyuan light up the night sky, and dancers look up and pray... During the Lantern Festival, the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" created with the theme of the national first-class cultural relic "Five Stars Out of the East Benefiting China" Han Dynasty brocade armguards, landed on Henan Satellite TV, Bilibili held multiple Lantern Festival parties, and dance segments such as "Splendid Dance" and "Dance of Lights" were popular, causing heated discussions on the Internet.

　　How was this dance drama forged and what artistic features did it have?

In the creation of cultural relics, what lessons did this drama bring us?

Recently, at a work seminar co-hosted by the China Association of Literary and Art Critics, the Literary and Art Critic Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and the Beijing Performing Arts Group, the main creators and experts of the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" discussed and communicated on related topics.

　　Telling the national treasure story in the form of dance drama

　　The dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" is jointly produced by the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Propaganda Department of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Party Committee of the Communist Party of China. Dance troupe performance.

　　The concept of the dance drama originated from the Han Dynasty brocade arm guards, a national first-class cultural relic "Five Stars Out of the East Benefiting China" unearthed from the Niya site in Hotan, Xinjiang.

In October 1995, members of the Sino-Japanese academic expedition to the Niya site found a piece of Han Dynasty Shu brocade in an ancient tomb at the Niya site in Minfeng County, Hotan area, with a length of 18.5 cm and a width of 12.5 cm. Eight Chinese characters in seal script were woven on it: "Five stars out of the East to benefit China".

The excavation of this relic is hailed as one of the greatest discoveries of Chinese archaeology in the 20th century.

　　When talking about why he chose to tell the national treasure story of "Five Stars Come Out of the East and Benefit China" in the form of dance dramas, Zhao Jiachen, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Beijing Performing Arts Group, said: "Telling stories with cultural relics must first make the cultural relics come alive. , thinks that dance drama is a good form of revitalizing cultural relics, because dance is the most primitive, most authentic, and most common human art form.”

　　The first question in dance drama creation is where does the "drama" come from.

Although "Five Stars Out of the East Benefit China" is a well-known national treasure, but due to the limited clues that this brocade armguard can use, the dance drama "Five Stars out of the East" has experienced a difficult process in story creation.

　　Zhao Jiachen introduced that in order to dig out more materials, in line with a rigorous creative attitude, the main creative team went to Xinjiang Hotan to collect the wind, and revised 12 drafts of the script alone.

During the creation process, experts from the fields of history, literature, cultural relics, philosophy, religion, dance, music, etc., carefully discussed the content of the script, and repeatedly studied the creative ideas and directions of the play.

　　In the end, the dance drama begins at the Niya archaeological site. After the archaeologists discovered the brocade armguard, they entered the time-space tunnel and opened the curtain of the story.

The dance drama takes the brocade armguard as the source of its conception, and produces a moving story: the frontier generals of the Han Dynasty were enshrined in the ancient city of Jingjue, the son of the Beiren leader Jiante, and the daughter of the leader Jingjue Chunjun, from fighting with swords to hand in hand, From acquaintance to deep recognition, forged a deep friendship.

The dance drama vividly interprets the theme that people of all ethnic groups "hold tightly together like pomegranate seeds" and form a community of the Chinese nation.

　　"Although the story of the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" is fictional, the setting of this story is in line with the logic of life, successfully shaped the characters, and skillfully restores the history of ethnic integration in the border areas with superb artistic means, and realizes it through the real typification of art. The real activation of history, moisturizing things silently makes the audience accept the theme of the community of the Chinese nation." said Xu Yuechun, vice chairman and secretary general of the Chinese Literature and Art Critics Association and director of the Literature and Art Critic Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

　　Dance is often not good at telling stories, it is more about lyricism, but the creation of dance dramas must focus on the integration of text and dance.

Zhao Tiechun, vice chairman of the Chinese Dancers Association and vice president of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, believes that the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" has achieved mutual verification between the text and the dance. In addition to lyricism, it is relatively mature in storytelling, and the choreographer controls the text well. , thus giving dance a literary character.

　　"In general dance dramas, you often know the ending from the beginning, and you can clearly understand the character's context, which rarely makes people think about the text or literary value. But this dance drama can lead the audience to follow the fate of the characters." Zhao Tiechun said .

　　Abundant dance imagination activates the connotation of cultural relics

　　The "dance" and "drama" of a dance drama are like the two wheels of a car and the two wings of a bird.

Dance drama is a stage performance art with dance as the carrier, and "dance" is very important.

　　The dance movements construct the dramatic contradictions and plot narratives of the dance drama.

Yu Ping, consultant of the Chinese Literature and Art Critics Association and honorary dean of the Dance Academy of Nanjing University of the Arts, believes that as the "core" of the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East", Gu Limina's Chunjun plays a role in communication with a dramatic dance performance. The key role of character relationships and resolving dramatic conflicts constitutes the dramatic tension of the play and becomes the finishing touch of the play.

　　In the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East", various dance segments are unforgettable.

The graceful and charming "Lantern Dance", the dignified and atmospheric "Splendid Dance", the fiery and dynamic "Market Dance", the passionate "Bounce Dance"... The audience can find the shadows of folk dances and classical dances, as well as You can see the fusion of hip-hop and tap dance, and the ingenious dance creation has won a lot of praise for the dance drama.

During this year's Lantern Festival, the "Splendid Dance" and "Lantern Dance" and other dance segments in the play have been on the Internet hot search list after appearing in many Lantern Festival parties, and they have attracted the attention of the whole network.

　　Huang Doudou, secretary of the Secretariat of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and vice-chairman of the Chinese Dancers Association, believes that the choreography of the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" is innovative.

From the Western Regions dance to the classical dance of the Han and Tang Dynasties, from the folk dance to the court music and dance, as well as the Huacai dance, the works have carried out a very natural integration and dialogue of different dance styles in the choreography and design.

　　"The most outstanding artistic innovation of the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" lies in the use of dance imagination to activate those vivid stories buried in the frontier archaeological relics, and to realize the imagination meeting between archaeology and dance art. The rich symbolic meaning of the arm is associated, and the fusion dance between the culture of the Central Plains and the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty is conceived. The three series of dance language concepts of the Western Regions Style, the Central Plains Style, and the Central Plains-Western Regions Fusion Style bring the audience back to an imaginary Han Dynasty. In the Chinese picture of inter-ethnic exchanges." said Wang Yichuan, vice chairman of the Chinese Literature and Art Critics Association and professor of the Literature and Art Research Center of Beijing Normal University.

　　After the dance drama "Only Blue and Green" inspired by the cultural relic "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" became popular, the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" came out of the circle, once again allowing people to see the broad space of cultural relics-themed artistic creation.

Wang Yichuan believes that this work provides valuable inspiration for artistic creation.

There are still many cultural relics in China, such as "Five Stars Out of the East Benefiting China" waiting for artists of various categories, expecting them to use their extraordinary imagination to bring those elves of the past back to life in contemporary life and enrich the audience's appreciation for a better life. Enjoy and yearn.