I want to share with you my experience of leading an artistic tour in France.
At the beginning of 2020, the dance drama “The Ancient Tea Horse Road” which I had created went to La Rochelle and Rouen, France to tour. The show combines dance, music, tea ceremony, and martial arts. All of the artists participating in the show are incredibly talented, and this is inseparable from every drop of sweat they shed during the show as well as rehearsals, therefore no matter where we go, we will strive to deliver an extraordinary performance, so that every spectator, even foreign, will be inspired to fall in love with Chinese culture and art.
Let’s talk about the rehearsal and the performance. It is inevitable that even the best of artists encounter different challenges during preparation, and so did we. For example, some of the martial arts performers found it difficult to perform certain dance moves. Offering them guidance, demonstrating and instilling some ideas in them helped them to express the desired emotions. Every actor tried their best to imagine and embody the feelings and emotions of the roles they played in the dance drama, even if it meant combining different styles and arts they are not familiar with in their performance. For example, our pipa actor Wang Mingyue, was not only responsible for the music part, but also the art of tea ceremony performance. This part of the show required martial arts performers, dancers and music artists to play roles within the tea art performance. Although performing pieces outside of your specialisation is a great challenge, the artists showed extremes strength, effort and dedication, and delivered outstanding performances.
When we walked into the theatre in France, we found that the theatre is also very formal. From the sound to the ground facilities the venue was outstanding, and some of our actors began to feel pressure after seeing it. That’s why it’s crucial for them to get familiar with the stage and practice there before going on to perform. There were also some actors who insisted on performing in spite of some small injuries or physical discomfort. This made me very touched when watching: a person who knows their sense of mission and doesn’t give up on any performance they can do.
One of the things that moved me was that all of the audiences in each show were very quiet, focused and absorbed in the show. Every time we performed, we would win their warm applause. This is a great encouragement for the actors, considering especially that we were dancing Chinese dance in a foreign country, and we received the audience’s love. This makes us as artists incredibly happy.
I am truly hoping that the pandemic will pass soon and everyone will be safe and healthy. After things return to normal, we look forward to sharing more Chinese programs to foreign audiences and bringing Chinese culture and art closer.
Jiaolong Ma is one of China’s most acclaimed Chinese classical dancers. He has excelled in a wide range of dance categories, coming in first place at the Hehua Dance Competition 2015 and third place at the Tao Li Bei Dance Competitions of 2006 and 2009. He is a skilled performer and teacher of Chinese classical dance, contemporary dance, the Shen Yun dance technique and tai chi. Jiaolong currently oversees our Chinese classical and Chinese sword dance short courses and is an instrumental part of our departmental Outreach Programme.
