Dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" "Point History into Poetry"

  Actress Gulimina: Interpreting the charm of cultural fusion

  In the vast desert, a group of archaeological researchers discovered the Han Dynasty brocade armguards with the Chinese characters "Five Stars Out of the East Benefiting China" in the Niya ruins in Xinjiang. The dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" kicked off.

  With the help of the beautiful dancers of the dancers, the play staged a moving imagination of "pointing an epic into a poem" for the audience, and was well received.

A few days ago, Gulimina Maimedi (hereinafter referred to as "Gulimina"), the famous young dancer and actress of the play's heroine "Chunjun", accepted an exclusive interview with the cover news reporter about the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East". Touch her.

Interpret the role with childlike innocence

  "Adjust mentality and return to youth"

  Produced by Beijing Performing Arts Group, with Wang Ge as the chief director, Xu Rui as the screenwriter, Yang Fan as the composer, Liu Kedong as the stage designer, and Yang Donglin as the costume designer, the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East" was unearthed on the ancient Silk Road in Hotan, Xinjiang. The "Five Stars Come Out of the East to Benefit China" Han Dynasty Brocade Armguards tells the story of how the Han Dynasty frontier general and the son of the Beiren, the daughter of the elite leader, "Chun Jun", turned the war into jade and silk.

The play takes the brocade armguard excavated from the archaeological site as an introduction, and opens a time tunnel.

In the first and second rounds of the tour, the venue was full.

Classic clips such as "Splendid" and "Dance of Lights" have fascinated a large number of audiences at this year's many satellite TV Lantern Festival Gala, so that tickets for offline performances are hard to come by.

  In the play, "Chunjun", played by Gulimina, is full of the innocence of a young girl, jumping up and down one by one, making many viewers "aunt laugh" while watching.

Outside the play, Gu Limina is already a wife and mother, and is currently an associate professor and master tutor at the School of Dance, Minzu University of China.

The change of different identities in and out of the play made her unable to feel it for a while, and one of the duet dances was something she had never encountered before.

The change of identity and the display of different dance styles have brought her a lot of challenges.

  "It was my first dance drama, and when I played the role of a girl, I couldn't find the character 'Chunjun' at first." However, the girlish innocence is the "eye of the play" in the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East", which is also a driving force. The key to the reconciliation between the son of Beiren and the frontier general.

Therefore, rejuvenating herself has become Gulimina's top priority.

On the eve of the rehearsal, she was very anxious to be unable to enter the play.

Until a "common saying" woke her up - "keep a childlike innocence."

  Gulimina said with a smile: "Maintaining a child's innocence and expressing a child's innocence are two different things. I observe my child's behavior, and I slowly let go of myself in daily life, and I also rely on age reduction in dressing." Finally, I went through rehearsals again and again. , running in, discussing, Gulimina and the girl "Chunjun" are integrated.

"'Chunjun' lives in the pure land of the Western Regions. He is a particularly innocent person who is full of curiosity about the outside world." In Gulimina's view, the innocent romance of "Chunjun" will resonate with everyone. , "She is very sincere, so I want to get myself closer to the role and feel like I'm back to youth."

 Fractured finger still insists on finishing the show

  "The drama is bigger than the sky, and the audience is bigger than the sky"

  The wind and sand are rolling, the desert is vast; the lights are faint, and the weather is prosperous.

Dances such as "Dance of Lights" and "Splendid" were staged one after another on a stage full of technology, which amazed the audience.

However, in addition to the "dance of lights" which has elements of music and dance in the Western Regions, most of the other parts are modern and contemporary dance vocabulary, which makes Gulimina, who is dancing the national dance, in trouble.

  "Modern and contemporary dance is not my strongest point, and I also need to shape characters. Through this rehearsal, I deeply felt that not all actors can be dance actors. Dance actors need to have a very comprehensive comprehensive ability." There is a pas de deux that Gulimina has never been exposed to before, which feels challenging and makes her feel that this is an excellent learning opportunity.

She groped and practiced over and over again, and finally perfectly shaped the character "Chunjun", and also presented the pas de deux with a contagious effect, which made many audiences sigh "I got it".

  Moreover, unlike dramas and musicals, which can use lines to express the emotions and plots of characters, dance actors must use dance to perform the whole process, and even use several dances to convey the amount of information of a line.

The two-hour performance, coupled with a lot of jumping movements in order to show the liveliness of the girl, undoubtedly put forward higher requirements for Gulimina's physical strength.

She has to attend classes and take care of the children, so she can only keep "adding small stoves" to herself outside the rehearsal field.

"Ten minutes on stage, ten years off stage, every time you practice, you are fighting against your body." In her words, it is "to fight against gravity".

  Usually, Gulimina pays great attention to personal maintenance and physical exercise, and strives to fit the character image.

She revealed that director Wang Ge gave herself a "military order": "Chun Jun" cannot gain weight.

Gulimina, who still insists on practicing the exercises every day after teaching, has also doubled the pressure because of this requirement.

"Even during the epidemic isolation at home, I bought floor glue and practiced at home every day." She joked that her state and physical strength were completely "forced".

  No matter how much you practice, stumbling, falls and injuries are common.

Gulimina recalled that in the last tour in September 2021, she first sprained her neck because of the rehearsal the day before, and when she officially performed in the scene of grabbing the collar of the son of the northerners, there was a sudden pain in her fingers. .

  "At the time, I thought, either the soft tissue contusion or the fracture. But I can't control it anymore. On the stage, the drama is bigger than the sky and the audience is bigger than the sky." She persisted until the performance was completed, and went to the hospital to take a film to diagnose her finger fracture.

But it didn't take long for Gulimina to join the group training again after the injury got better. "Because every day when I didn't dance was a disappointment to my life."

Take the audience into the fairy tale world

  "Multi-ethnic fusion audio-visual feast"

  In recent years, many excellent dance dramas have emerged. Like "Five Stars Out of the East", they all use dance forms that young audiences love to see to convey the connotation and power behind traditional culture.

The original creation of the dance drama "Five Stars Out of the East", due to its age, left only a few words for the main creators: "Five Stars Out of the East Benefit China" and "Fengjin Yi Langxuan unanimously ask Chunjun, fortunately not to forget each other".

But it is precisely because of the scarcity of clues that it gave the creative team unlimited imagination.

  After several polishing, overthrow and re-runs, "Five Stars Out of the East" finally finalized the content of "Dancing Dance" representing the western style of Jingjue City, "Splendid" of the Central Plains style of the Han Dynasty, and the fusion dance created later. Presenting a multi-ethnic fusion audio-visual feast for the audience.

Gulimina admitted that she was very happy when she performed, "It's like entering a fairy tale world, which is very beautiful."

  Gulimina, who grew up in the hometown of singing and dancing in Xinjiang, is keen to use dance as a medium to convey the charm of culture to the audience.

"National fusion and national unity are the essence of "Five Stars Out of the East", showing the cultural fusion behind the cultural relics." Gulimina said, "This dance drama seems to be writing a love letter to the hometown, expressing love and gratitude for the hometown."

  In addition to dance dramas, Gulimina has also participated in many variety shows and starred in the song and dance movie "You Beautiful My Life".

She shines on the stage, but she has no hobbies in private, and her time is almost occupied by teaching and dancing.

She admitted frankly that as a young dancer and teacher, she bears certain responsibilities and obligations: "I hope to convey our excellent traditional culture, national culture and dance culture through every dance, and to convey the power of art."

  Cover reporter Xun Chao and intern Wang Zhuo