A dance through time

Do you know what a "bluish-green waist" is? It comes from Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting, a dance drama based on The Vast Land, (previously known as Thousands Li of Rivers and Mountains), Wang Ximeng's famous painting from the Song Dynasty (960-1279). On New Year's Eve, after the women's group dance on China Central Television's Spring Festival Gala, it quickly became an internet sensation.

The first stop of the second round of the dance group's national tour was in Haikou, Hainan province. The sold-out tickets revealed their popularity, so consequently, four extra performances were scheduled for Haikou.

Displaying scrolls, finding stones, studying brushstrokes, quenching ink and paintings ... the dance group uses various chapters to allow the audience to travel through time and space, and enter the world of Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng from the perspective of the exhibitionist. The color bluish-green is the soul of the ancient painting, and it is also the visual symbol of the entire dance drama. The eyebrows are sharp, highlighted by red lips and a high bun. The sleeves are neatly rolled, and every move of the dancers merges into painting. Dressed in turquoise long skirts, as if the whole setting is transformed into green peaks and steep cliffs, through the changes of movements, they dance with the "bluish-green waist" to render the scene in the painting in which dangerous peaks and recumbent rocks portray the majestic momentum of the interdependence of mountains and rivers incisively and vividly.

The slowly rotating picture scroll on the stage is not only the division and transition of space, but also serves as the texture of the stage. Between the scrolling and the exhibition, the originally static painting is endowed with the meaning of time.

The design of the character "bluish-green" is even more wonderful. She is the paint, the color, the painting, the meaning of the painting, the soul of the painting, and the witness and connection of the intersection of time and space. If the appearance of a character is an ever-flowing symbol, then the continuous presentation of bluish-green girls is a gushing force.

The director visualizes the still pictures and abstract colors into graceful dancers, allowing the audience to see the beauty of "bluish-green" intuitively, and let them travel through the stage and connect works in series, looming and smearing the fate of thousands of years.

In the center of the stage, Wang Ximeng is the painter outside the painting, and hovering around him are the colors in the painting. The dancer's rhythm is getting faster and faster, and the paintbrush in Wang's hand is also flying with the color, and audiences have to take a deep breath, as if everything about themselves is also involved in the turquoise vortex.

In addition to the stunning rendering of the painting, this dance drama also presents many intangible cultural heritage techniques such as seal cutting, silk weaving, Chinese painting pigment production, pen making and Hui-style ink production in an artistic way, allowing the audience to appreciate the beauty of their dance pose, and at the same time feel the touch of traditional culture.

In addition, the stage design of concentric circles, the costume design that accurately displays the aesthetics of the Song Dynasty, the long-lasting soundtrack and the exquisite lighting together create an immersive atmosphere for the audience to appreciate the painting, allowing it to wander in the legendary traditional Chinese aesthetics.

"Every frame is an ancient painting, and The Vast Land is alive," says a member of the audience after watching the dance drama.

Another member of the audience agreed: "The most important reason why the dance drama became popular is its deep cultivation and excavation of excellent traditional culture. This is a manifestation of cultural self-confidence, and it also awakens the audience's sense of ritual and identification with traditional Chinese culture."