On the stage of CCTV's Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Dragon, the dance "Goose Goose Goose" performed by Shanghai Ballet and Xuguang Children's Dance Art Troupe of Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province created a beautiful dream world. Children dream of dancing swans, introducing the classic "Four Little Swan Dance", "Swan Princess" solo dance and "Swan Ocean" group dance. Playing the role of "Swan Princess" is Qi Bingxue, the principal actor of Shanghai Ballet and a national first-class actor. "Swan Lake is probably the most performed play I've ever performed at Shanghai Ballet, it's like an 'alchemy stone', and it's a challenging technique and performance. This year is Qi Bingxue's 10th year of being admitted to Shanghai Ballet, and "Swan Lake" has grown with her all the way.
In the autumn of 2023, Shanghai Ballet's classic version of Swan Lake will fly to the Netherlands and perform 36 performances in 45 days. Nearly 70,000 European audiences walked into the theater to experience the shock of the "Swan Sea" from Shanghai, China. It was precisely when he saw the Chinese interpretation of classical ballet in Shanghai Ballet's "Swan Lake" that the director of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala threw an olive branch. The head of the troupe, Xin Lili, revealed that the dance troupe received a notice to go to Beijing in mid-January, and the 31 actors who participated in the performance were stationed in Beijing for more than 20 days to participate in the Spring Festival Gala rehearsals, and they did not slack off for a day. In the Spring Festival of 2024, the "Swan" of Shanghai Ballet jumped on the CCTV stage, giving the audience more expectations for Shanghai-style ballet.
A touch of warm and bright color, the "swan sea" sends warm sunshine.
When I arrived in Beijing, I really walked into the No. 1 studio of ** TV station, and a sense of pride arose. Qi Bingxue told reporters that she would be nervous and nervous to participate in the Spring Festival Gala for the first time, but more than that, she was excited. After several rounds of review and rehearsal, she felt the great pressure of competition in the Spring Festival Gala, and at the same time was full of confidence in this program belonging to Shanghai Ballet. "I want my family to see me on stage, and I hope that through the dissemination of the CCTV platform, Shanghai-style ballet will be understood and loved by more audiences. ”
Although "Swan" has been skipped countless times, the stage performance is very different from the TV variety show recording. "Usually performing in the theater has a sense of environment, with a stage, auditorium, side curtains, floor paving and floor glue. There are many differences on the CCTV stage, and we have to adapt to the camera equipment around us, and it is also a big challenge for ballet performers to stand on their toes on the lifting platform. Qi Bingxue told reporters that only by practicing over and over again can we ensure a smooth performance. "The first review felt quite nervous, after all, every rehearsal has an audience. During the performance, we didn't know which camera was being filmed, so we just did our best according to the director's request. ”
On January 19, Qi Bingxue and his partners began closed training. During the rehearsal, the director put forward a new requirement that all the actors should be very sunny. "I usually dance the second and fourth acts of "Swan Lake", as long as we are together, we will be immersed in a somewhat cold dance drama atmosphere. In particular, the white swan I played is a holy character. In order to show the sunny and warm side on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, we adjusted little by little to find an accurate sense of stage. ”
Famous dramas are a "touchstone", grinding out the beautiful "swan princess".
For me, rehearsing "Swan Lake" is the metamorphosis of 'ugly duckling into swan'. Qi Bingxue said.
In 2007, Qi Bingxue, who was only 11 years old, came to Shanghai from Haikou alone and entered the Dance School Affiliated to Shanghai Opera to learn dance; In 2014, he was admitted to Shanghai Ballet. The Swan Lake version was launched in 2015 and has been touring Europe every year since then, starting with the Netherlands. At that time, Qi Bingxue was still a young little girl; In 2017, "Swan Ocean" "flew" to Europe for the second time, and she ushered in her "Swan Princess" debut.
Today, the footprints of Shanghai ballet have spread all over Europe and North America, and have reached the world stage, and young performers have grown rapidly. In 2023, Shanghai Ballet will take Swan Lake to Europe for the fourth round of its tour, and the premiere will kick off in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on the evening of August 31 local time. When it was the busiest before the opening, the reporter found Qi Bingxue in the quietest side curtain of the stage. She carefully arranges her dancing shoes, quietly wraps her scarred toes in cotton, and uses this small habit that has been repeated thousands of times to focus on "silent play". "Swan Lake is probably the most performed play I've ever performed at Shanghai Ballet, but I think there's still a lot of room for improvement. It's like an 'alchemy stone', and the technique and performance are all difficult challenges. Expressing the completely different personalities and textures of black and white swans in a play requires constant pondering and polishing. Qi Bingxue said.
At Shanghai Ballet, Qi Bingxue has played the leading role in 16 dance dramas, each of which is a new challenge. In 2023, she was promoted to Principal Dancer and entered a new phase in her career. Someone asked Qi Bingxue, what is the secret of success? She replied: "The most important thing is the love of ballet and the pursuit of art. Isn't it a bit official? But if you don't love ballet, if you don't want to study and ponder, it's hard for you to get to where you are now. ”
As Xin Lili, director of Shanghai Ballet, said, dancing a classic play like "Swan Lake" is a "stepping stone" to the world's top stage. It is reported that the Shanghai Ballet is creating a new play "Lilies". In March, Shanghai Ballet will present the ballet "In the Mood for Love" at the Hong Kong Arts Festival; At the end of the year, the original ballet "La Traviata" will also be presented in Brisbane, Australia. "Every year, we want to stage classical, contemporary and modern ballet, hoping to bring more Chinese stories, red classics, and Jiangnan Lingyun works to overseas audiences. Xin Lili said.
Author: Xuan Jing.
Text: Xuan Jing Editor: Xu Yang Responsible Editor: Li Ting.
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