Though it has no big stars, Pictures of Yimeng Mountains, a traditional Chinese dance presented by the Ji'nan Song and Dance Theatre, is nevertheless a feast for the eyes, ears and heart.
The show, to be staged at the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing tonight and tomorrow, features the lifestyle, culture and costumes of the people of the Yimeng Mountains in east China's Shandong Province.
"The show represents the Yimeng people's life on the stage very vividly," said Liu Qiong, dance critic with People's Daily.
The folk-dance show consists of 10 independent but naturally coherent scenes, plus a prelude and an ending. Each is inspired by an activity or a story from the Yimeng people's real lives.
Singing the popular "Yimeng Tune," a girl in red homemade cotton coat, wearing pigtails -- the common hair style among the Yimeng girls -- and with a bamboo basket on her arm, dances briskly through the audience onto the stage to start the show.
Then 10 "pictures" of the Yimeng life seamlessly unfold.
In the light of the Silver Moon, the people in the mountains work hard for their harvest and a happy, healthy life.
The solo dance Steps on the New Shoes performed by Xie Changhui displays the young woman's delight as she tries on new shoes and dreams about leaving the mountains to see the world.
The third scene, Red Millstone, features a woman's solo contrasted by a men's group dance. The millstone, one of a village's main tools, is still used in the mountains. Circling the millstone day after day, the woman's black hair turns white and the strong men become hunchbacks.
Five women dance the Golden Scissors in which they skillfully make paper-cuts. Making paper-cuts is a custom in the area to welcome the new year, and also express people's good wishes for the coming year. In this scene, the arm-and-hand choreography is impressive.
Next, Weaving Life consists of several couples' pas de deux. They weave baskets and make other things for daily use while expressing their love.
Home-made Colourful Cloth portrays in dance the changes in a woman's life through the metaphor of making and dying cloth.
The following scene, Straw Rain Capes, depicts old men chatting in the fields under a light rain. The piece is full of humour and funny movements.
Then a group of women perform Green Cattail Leaf Fans in which they are busy making food in the hot summer, fanning themselves as well as the stoves.
Next comes the Golden Harvest Autumn, in which the people sing as they reap, loudly expressing their happiness.
Before the ending, in the scene called Baking the Pies, the pies dramatically turn into a huge red sun to symbolize the Yimeng people's future prosperous life.
Finally the girl who kicked off the show returns to the stage and sings the same old folk song to wrap it up.
Choreographers Zhao Yu and Zhang Yi went to live in the Yimeng Mountains for three months to experience the local life, according to Zhuang Yan, artistic director of the Ji'nan Song and Dance Theatre.
Though neither has become a famous choreographer, Zhao and Zhang vividly interpret what they observed into movements full of artistic exaggeration, humour and contrast.
The music is also worthy of mention. Composer Ren Baozhen successfully blends various folk musical elements such as yangge, folk songs, Liuqin Opera and Luju Opera. Many folk instruments such as suona, liuqin, zhuiqin, sanxian and banhu are used in the orchestra.
The complete score sounds familiar, because it is rich in Shandong flavour, but also fresh, for the novel combinations generate new effects.
"I composed the score like I was composing a suite, for it is not like a ballet with a story. Each scene is independent," said Ren. "But since each scene has a different theme, I also changed the main tune to follow the different backgrounds: sometimes emotional, sometimes light, sometimes heavy and sometimes funny," he said.
(China Daily November 26, 2002)
