Modern dance has a broad definition and a tortuous development process in China. As mentioned above, pioneers of new dance art such as Wu Xiaobang, Dai Ailian, and Jia Zuoguang also pursued the national character and spirit of the times more strongly during their own dance enlightenment education. Among them, Wu Xiaobang's wise words of "dancing with the pulse of the times" and "20th century classics" represented by "March of the Volunteers", "Song of the Guerrillas", "Hunger Fire", etc. should be regarded as "Chinese modern dance". "Precious spiritual wealth. In the development process of modern Chinese dance, broadly speaking, any dance that does not have a specific national style or classical formula seems to be classified as "Chinese-style modern dance." However, the reason why we did not include the works mentioned earlier in the category of "modern dance" that we have introduced in the category of "modern dance" is because they reflect the social and historical events of public concern and have a distinctive realist character. Strictly speaking, they are obviously different from "modern dance" which belongs to the Western modernist art system, from creative concepts to expression forms.
From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, Wu Xiaobang founded the "Tianma Dance Art Studio" to systematically implement the teaching system he created - derived from modern dance - in order to create a "Chinese dance art studio". "Modern Dance" approach, and has carried out various creative practices. The works of this period include: "Ambush from Flying Daggers", "Three Plum Blossom Lanes", "Goose Falling on the Sand", which are inspired by ancient music and pursue the spirit of traditional Chinese culture; there are also "Shepherd Boy Literacy" based on real life. , "Football Dance", "Butterfly"...etc. His artistic beliefs remain the same, but the above-mentioned works are not as influential as those dances he performed during the Anti-Japanese War. Later, with the discontinuation of "Tianma Studio", the exploration of modern dance in China gradually declined.
Chinese modern dance re-emerged from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, and developed increasingly with the deepening of reform and opening up. The early batch of works that the masses call modern dance include: "Hope", "Silent Song", "Goodbye, Mom", "Wedding on the Execution Ground", "The Endless Strings", etc. From the conception to the breakthrough of language model, it has obvious sense of innovation and great impact. However, except for "Hope", the expression techniques of most works still reflect the specific characters in specific events in a concrete way. Obviously, this is not strictly modern dance. Since then, Shanghai Hu Jialu has launched his own series of works "Call of the Ideal", "Rope Wave", "Blood Sinking", "Game Capriccio", "The Other Shore", "Monologue"... From the creativity of the works to the form of expression - language cultivation It seems that the choreographer is getting closer to the "modern dance" in his mind. There is a wave of Israeli style in the European modern dance world, and Keibz Contemporary Dance Company is the main creator of this whirlwind. In the series of performances of "Beijing Dance Weekend: Focus Observation", Kübz Contemporary Dance Company performed "Even" as the finale. Compared with the previous performances by the British Janice Dance Company and the Spanish Cienfuergo Dance Company, , Singaporean Dance Company, American Oberlin Dance Company, and three domestic first-class dance companies led by Cao Chengyuan, Kuibuz received the longest applause and tribute from the audience after the performance.
Cross-cultural: Understand others and reflect on yourself
“In today’s international modern dance map, Israel occupies an extremely important position. If we want to talk about international modern dance in the early 21st century, "The most unstoppable force in the world must be Israeli artists." Cao Chengyuan, the organizer of Beijing Dance Weekend, said that although Israel is located in the western part of Asia closest to Europe, it has been strongly influenced by the development of European dance, and a new generation of Israeli dancers have accepted it. The momentum of modern dance moving eastward is ripe. In terms of cross-cultural cooperation, Israeli modern dance has a strong voice.
As early as 1948, when the state of Israel was founded, many Jews wandering around the world chose to come back to found the state. “They brought the cultural characteristics of different countries, so Israel is multi-ethnic, diverse, and diverse. The combination provides rich soil for modern dance to create different aspects," Rami Bell, artistic director of the Kibuz Contemporary Dance Company, told reporters.
The Keibz Contemporary Dance Company led by Rami is the most important modern dance company in Israel today. It has 15 dancers all year round. Although most of the dancers are Israelis, there are also dancers from the Netherlands and Germany. , dancers from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, Russia and other places. "Because we tour more than 200 shows around the world every year, many dancers are quite familiar with us. They think Israel is a very special place, so many people choose to join our dance company." But Lamy is not worried about culture. On the contrary, he believes that "dance is an internationally accepted language, and dancers have received similar professional training, so regardless of nationality or religion, we do not have much difficulty in communicating."
Although modern dance has always emphasized that dancers maintain "self" and "individuality," Charles also pointed out that in the cross-cultural exchanges of American modern dance, a problem that easily arises is that "many young people have no ideas at all. , to emphasize that 'this is me, that's who I am'. In their understanding, individuals have the final say, without any connection with the outside world, or with the past, history, and environment. "This overemphasis on "individuality". The point of view of dancers blurs their individuality and loses their uniqueness. Everyone looks the same. The method Charles came up with is, "Let dancers understand what is behind why you are who you are. Everyone Different living environments and cultural backgrounds require dancers to think about their relationship with their living space, family, history, and cultural background, and to find their own identity.”
Cross-media: Visual effects are becoming more and more important. More attention is paid
Because of the importance of the United States in the history of world modern dance, the American Oberlin Dance Company that performed in "The Wind and Waves" in "Focus Watch" will inevitably receive attention. Oberlin Dance Company was founded in Ohio, USA in 1971 by current artistic director Brand Wei. It is an important force that can compete with New York.
“The landscape of modern dance in the world today has changed a lot. Although New York still has a reputation, it is no longer the palace of modern dance in many people’s minds. On the contrary, there are more noteworthy and impressive places in Europe, Australia and Asia. A surprising modern dance group; American modern dance has been concentrated in New York before and is now scattered throughout the United States. Among them, San Francisco has undisputedly become an important hub for many modern dance centers," said Cao Chengyuan. . "The eastern United States pays more attention to thinking and ideological discussions, while the western United States focuses more on the display of the human body and strength." Brand Wei summarized the differences between modern dance in the eastern and western parts of the United States to reporters.
In "Long Wind and Waves", Oberlin Dance Company made extensive use of "human voices" to expand the sense of stage space, and used "projected light and shadow" to create powerful visual effects, which are all amazing. "In each work, we will use different cross-border collaborations of vocals, visual art and live music as appropriate." Brand Wei said. There are a lot of signs of this kind of cross-media cooperation being used in other works of "Focus Observation", as well as "Youth Dance Exhibition" and "Alternative Platform".
“Because body language has no grammar, many choreographers are not willing to perform purely physical performances. Language, voice, expressions, daily movements, etc. have become tools used by dancers to express messages.” A visitor to Beijing Song Huiting, a graduate student at the Nanjing University of the Arts who participated in the Dance Weekend, told reporters that early modern dance was mostly body-oriented and emphasized the conveyance of the dancer's body texture, while modern dance pays more and more attention to the presentation of visual effects. Taking dance as its main body and combining it with other media such as drama, sculpture, multimedia, installation art, experimental video, rock music, electronic noise and other cross-disciplinary collaborations have become a popular trend in modern dance.
However, although cross-media creation has become a fact in modern dance and a possibility that every choreographer can enjoy, Yi, who has collaborated with dancer Jin Xing in the dance theater "A Doll's House" Inger Burson, artistic director of Busen International, said, “Don’t use multimedia to collaborate with dance unless necessary.
” Inger Burson believes that the essence of artistic creation lies in expressing the dancer’s views, thoughts and issues. Although creation will use different media as the times change, if you cannot master these media, it is better to return to dance itself and focus on dance. The most basic concepts are expressed well.
Its most distinctive feature is that it reflects the contradictions of modern Western society and people’s psychological characteristics, so it is called modern dance. American modernist dancer Helen Tommynis summarized modern dance. The difference is: "There is no universal law, every artist creates his own code. "
Isadora Duncan
Its founder is recognized as the American dancer Isadora Duncan (Isadora Duncon, 1877^-1927;), she believes The practice of classical ballet can cause abnormal development of the human body. She yearns for primitive simplicity and natural innocence, and advocates that "dancers must combine the body with the soul, and the body movements must develop into the natural language of the soul" to express the heart sincerely and naturally.
Rudolf Laban
It was the Hungarian Rudolf Laban who systematically established a relatively complete theoretical and training system for the modern dance school. Rudolf Von Laban (1877-1968), who created a training method called natural law, which summarized the composition of human body movements into eight elements such as "cutting, pressing, punching, twisting, sliding, flashing, tapping, and floating". He believes that by correctly handling the relationship between various elements, various movements can be composed. The "Laban Dance Score" he created is still one of the most influential dance scores in the world.
Ruth· St. Denis
Ruth St. Denis (1877-1968), a dancer at the same time as Duncan, was a pioneer of modern dance in the United States. She widely absorbed the styles of Egypt, Greece, India, The dance culture of Thailand and Arab countries has formed a modern dance with oriental mystery and a religious spirit. In recent decades, dancers of this genre have developed independently and formed many different styles and artistic ideas. Some of the schools have made great achievements in the innovation and development of dance, while others have completely violated the basic ideas and artistic propositions of the early modern dance schools, strayed far away from objective social real life, and developed into bizarre, grotesque, Obscure to the point of being incomprehensible and unacceptable to the general audience
Graham and Humphrey
Among the students of Saint Denis, M. Graham, D. Han. Frye became a representative of American modern dance, especially Graham, whose name has almost become synonymous with modern dance. Although they are all students of Saint Denis, they are not the successors of their teachers, but are rebels. Following their own artistic paths. Humphrey believed that the exotic dance of Saint-Denis could not reflect the human spirit. She established her own artistic theory and technical principles based on the basic principles of human movement, namely falling and rising, balance. The laws of dance movements are composed of imbalance. For example, when a person falls before violence, he must stand up to resist. These movements contain the connotation of human conflict. Therefore, most of Humphrey's works have symbolic meaning from the outside. Formally opposed to her teacher, Graham opposed Saint-Denis's artistic concepts based on the deeper psychological state of human beings. Therefore, her dance is called "psychological dance school". Graham emphasizes that dance should express oneself objectively. Faith. In "Mourning", she shows the distortion and convulsion of the human body due to anxiety and pain, which is her "illustration of the human soul". The center of her technical theory is breathing. She studied the physical changes of the human body between exhalation and inhalation, and believed that dancers can use breathing to propel the body to rotate, jump, fall, and prop up. Her early works caused controversy and were considered too dark and sexy, but she eventually became the most famous and longest-lasting dancer in the United States, influencing various fields such as theater, film, and television.
In the eyes of ordinary people, since it is dance, it must dance all the time, but in modern dance, this concept does not exist at all, because the concept of modern dance is very broad. In the eyes of modern dancers, the beauty of nature There is nothing that cannot be danced, and every action and movement of man is dancing.
The second is to understand the creative background and motivations of the creator of the work. In fact, a work largely represents the inner world and creative mentality of the editor at that time, and these phenomena are often reflected in the work. Therefore, understanding the creative background and motivations of the creator of the work will help you better appreciate and understand the work.
Third, look at the “dynamics” and “structure” of the work. Modern dance is an art with a strong sense of form. Therefore, no matter what form modern dance is performed in, the most basic thing is to start with movements. The formation, continuation, development, and change of movements are, most importantly, Look at the borrowing method of movements, and secondly look at the structure of the work. Modern dance breaks the classical aesthetic principle of the ideal of harmony, pays attention to people in real society and pursues the true beauty of nature. Therefore, in the structure, it pays special attention to contrast, movement and The contrast between movements, the contrast between dance sections and dance sections, the contrast between rhythm and rhythm, the contrast between emotions and the contrast of dance composition, etc.
Fourth, we should try our best to watch more modern dance works, and during the process of appreciation, we should use our six innate senses to feel the works wholeheartedly. In modern dance works, the weight of the dancer is emphasized rather than the lightness like ballet. The process of space is emphasized in the movement rather than the movement itself. The frustration of charm is emphasized in space instead of smoothness. The emphasis is placed on the composition. Imbalance rather than balance, emphasizing the disclosure of process rather than the concealment of process. After understanding these, we can think rationally and comprehensively analyze the work.