On April 25, the Yenching Academy held an event centering on the modern dance drama Journey to the West at Second Gymnasium. The event was joined by French composer Laurent Petitgirard, Perpetual Secretary of the French Academy of Fine Arts, Chinese dancer-choreographer Wang Yabin, and YCA Dean Dong Qiang, who work in collaboration for the dance drama as composer, choreographer, and consultant. They held an insightful dialogue on the dance drama, and demonstrated highlights of this art piece. The main dancers gave a brilliant performance at the event.
Dean Dong Qiang first introduced the Academy’s development in the past decade. YCA holds its mission as to propel cultural exchanges and integration of the East and the West. It invites renowned Chinese and international scholars to sit in face-to-face cultural and academic events, through which Yenching Scholars gain wider perspectives to observe and understand the world. Also, the Academy has built a stronger presence at home and abroad. He noted that in the dialogue event with the creation team of Journey to the West, audience would know more about how the dance drama came into being and was put on stage, and what’s more inspiring, the artists would explore more possibilities for the East-West cultural exchanges. Prof. Dong hoped that the event would help enhance the communication and understanding between cultures and contribute to a common progress of human civilization.
Petitgirard composed unique scores for the dance drama, pouring into it his expertise of music and his love of the Chinese epic. He shared what he thought about and felt when working on the dance drama. Petitgirard highlighted that music and literature are two different yet intertwined ways through which humans express their emotions and thoughts. Music touches people’s heart with its melodies, rhythms, and tones, and literature illustrates the world and emotions with texts. Petitgirard appreciated the process he worked on Journey to the West, as being both challenging and inspiring. He conducted an in-depth study of the Chinese classics, particularly stories, characters, and emotional dynamics in the novel Journey to the West, and tried to express all the elements via music. Petitgirard noted that, dance and music have, both as the vehicle of human emotions, a same mission to express what people feel and think. He tried every best to make his music a good companion of the motions and characters in the dance drama, so that music and dance would be a whole to represent the essence of Journey to the West. Petitgirard integrated Western modern music elements into traditional Chinese music, to depict the quintessence of the Chinese classic via a universal language of music with Eastern features. He hoped that his music helps audience from different cultures get a feel for Journey of the West, and thus contributes to cultural communication and integration between the East and the West.
Wang Yabin delved into the creation and performance of Journey to the West from a dancer-choreographer’s perspective. She saw dance as a bridge between herself and the world, and a way to express herself. As the choreographer of the dance drama, Wang tried to depict the characters’ personalities and emotions via their body movements, which must be, according to her, filled with vitality of life and tension of emotions. Wang stressed that Journey to the West is not simply an aggregate of body movements, but an integral whole of classical Chinese dance, folk dance, and modern dance. It’s also an integral whole of diverse art forms, including dance, music, drama, and fine arts. Such a crossover presents the quintessence of the Chinese classic in a completely new fashion, and the audience enjoy the visual art of dance and savor the fragrance of traditional Chinese culture at the same time. Wang Yabin also talked about her insight on dance. In her eyes, dance is a language without sound, communicating with the world via body movements. That’s what she did with Journey to the West—depicting the characters with well-designed, refined choreographic language. Wang appreciated the crossover of dance and other art forms, which could spark new ideas in the landscape of dance art.
The audience was impressed by the video of the dance drama choreographed by Wang Yabin. The video showed how a dance drama was choreographed, and the audience admired a brilliant visual-audio integration of Chinese and Western arts.
The major dancers of Journey to the West gave a marvelous performance, which was warmly applauded. It was fantastic to see the household Chinese classic presented in modern dance.
In the Q&A session, the audience raised questions on the content selection, choreography, creation, and artistic expression of the dance drama, demonstrating their thoughts and interest in the Chinese classic. Petitgirard was happy to answer the questions. He studied the story and characters in the novel and tried to present them in his music. Petitgirard integrated Western modern music elements into traditional Chinese music, to depict the quintessence of the Chinese classic via a universal language of music with Eastern features. Wang Yabin explained how to express the meanings and emotions in literary works by using body movements in a dance performance. She noted that dance as a language without sound has unique strengths in emotions and thoughts. What she does is to depict the characters with well-designed, refined choreographic language. In her words, the audience gained a deeper understanding of dance art. The thought-provoking event was a good chance where the audience knew better about the famous Chinese novel and opened up a new horizon for art.
Dean Dong noted that the event was a great success and Yenching Academy was proud of its role in promoting cultural exchanges between China and the West. He pointed that Yenching Academy will be devoted to fostering youth talent with international perspectives for intercultural communication, “to tell China story with a language of the world, but in China’s way.” Yenching Academy aims to contribute to creative transformation and international development of Chinese culture.
The dance drama Journey to the West is a brilliant integration of the Chinese classic novel and modern arts, showing the audience around the globe the quintessence of Chinese culture in a completely modern way. In this event, students and teachers had a chance to feel in person a fantastic integration of traditional culture and modern arts, and the event was a marvelous place where Chinese and Western cultures met and mingled. Yenching Academy will follow its original aspiration for open and inclusive intercultural exchanges and enrichment and join hands with the like-minded to carry on and development Chinese culture and tell China’s story to the world.
