Can it be touchable?
Princess Changping is gem of Cantonese opera, an untouchable beauty. 'Touching the untouchable' is an endeavor of the production. The production aims to present a new experience to audience based on minimalism and modern music texture, with interaction of Chinese traditional music and the dancers.
(1) Scenes and Synopsis
Princess Changping and her husband Zhou Shixian will appear in three different times: the ancient, the ancient/modern and the modern era to unfold the eight classic scenes. One prologue and the eight scenes with synopsis are summarized in Appendix 2.
(2) Directing
Director Tang Shu-wing has won twice in Hong Kong Drama Awards for Best Director and other awards. Some good directions are as follows. The Prologue is characterized by one male and one female dancers acting as Golden Boy and Jade Girl. They came out to each front stage corner before the curtain rose up. They began to dress up indicating the stage was on show. During the whole performance, the Golden Boy and Jade Girl each stood there. This was behavioral performance art. Yet, it was the theme of love and life.
Scene One was competition for marrying the Princess. Pushing down the competitors' chairs on floor wisely indicated the competitors losing the competition. Exceptionally, Scene Three has no dancing. Dancers stood still (freeze posture) on a movable long bridge at back stage, creating a picture. The whole movable bridge was moved forward to down stage, making the picture more vivid, creating impressiveness. Scene four was dramatic. On stage centre, Princess's gown was put up on a stand. The Princess took the gown and threw it down into a hole at the stage front. This implied to bury her princess identity. In addition, snow was falling above the hole, continuing to keep covering up this identity. In Scene Five, Princess escaped from Zhou Shixian, jumping into the hole with half body above stage and half body in the hole. Zhou followed into the hole and struggled to bring her out. It was interesting to see them dancing half body above the stage. An ‘out of the box' arrangement was a male dancer acting as Priestess Qin saying to Zhou and Princess, 'Can you be more free?' It triggered disassociation but reflected director's innovative concept. In Scene Seven, all dancers appeared and danced on stage. In Scene Eight, after Princess was situated on centre stage, a recitation of philosophy for love, desire and life was made. With both Golden boy and Jade Girl moving back into rear stage and fading away, the ending scene leaved an empty stage for reflection. A spotlighted real-time clock moved down from above, implying the message of 'here and now'.
(3) Choreography and Dancers
Guest choreographer Xing Liang has won twice in Hong Kong Dance Alliance Hong Kong Dance Awards and many other awards. The piece as a whole, were complied with modern dance, Chinese traditional dance and operatic dance movement. Also, the Tai Chi element was incorporated into the dance movement. So, it looked very exquisite
In Scene One, seven competitors and Zhou Shixian danced in a form of Chinese martial art, it was spectacular. In Scene Four, the struggle between Princess and Zhou with their bodies half way above the hole was interesting. Zhou pulled to pursue and Princess pushed to deny. Their body movement twisted together beautifully. In Scene Five, the 'Long Sleeves' dance was amazing. Princess extended left sleeve end which was stepped by right foot, and extended right sleeve end which was stepped by left foot. This formed a front cross from stopping her moving forward. It brilliantly indicated Princess's psychological barrier in releasing herself to reunite with Zhou. Also, the group dance of 'Long Sleeves' created wave and zigzag pattern triggering chain of past history and emotions. Scene Six has some Chinese traditional dance and Chinese operatic dance movement, but without music. Scene Seven has many dancers dancing on stage. The modern dance was full of energy.
(4) 'What's the difference?'
Something such as the original songs and text are untouchable since they are the classics. Something touchable such as the operatic dance movement can be transformed by Chinese traditional dance and modern dance, as long as they conveyed the story and the mood of emotion. New perspectives on the down stage Golden Boy and Jade Girl, and the recitation on Princess's death, showed the Director's philosophy for love and life. The choreography kept the dance movement changing beautifully from moment to moment, and drew the audience's focus from time to time.
(5) Conclusion
Can classical Cantonese opera such as Princess Changping be presented by different format like dance theatre? The answer is 'Yes'. This production was a good example.
「看舞‧析舞‧論舞——舞蹈賞析及評論寫作計劃」由國際演藝評論家協會（香港分會）和香港舞蹈聯盟合辦及統籌。
本網站內一切內容之版權均屬國際演藝評論家協會（香港分會）及原作者所有，未經本會及/或原作者書面同意，不得轉載。