The tour of Mulan reached a successful conclusion
- Details
- Category: Ningbo News
- Published: Sunday, 11 April 2021 09:00
The still of Mulan (Photo by Lin Min)
On the night of April 2, the dance drama Mulan,
a joint work by Ningbo Performance & Arts Group, China National Opera House, and Wuhan Huangpi District People's Government, was put on the stage at Shaanxi Grand Theater, driving a body of citizens traveling all the way to enjoy this original Ningbo folk dance drama. The previous night witnessed its premiere in Xi’an, which not only drew the attention of many local mainstream media but also promoted many audiences spontaneously to build up the publicity for the performance.
"Mulan, I know!" Veta from Croatia, a teacher at Xi'an Eurasian National University who has stayed at Xi'an for 5 years, gave Mulan a thumb up after watching the dance drama. "I have a keen interested in Chinese history and culture, and so does my husband, and we both like the story of Mulan."
"While my enjoying it, my eyes got moist." A young father brought his daughter, who is studying dance, to watch the show and lined up for the actors’ autographs after the performance. "My favorite scene is the first act, where Mulan joined the army for her father and bid farewell to her father. The emotion was portrayed so vividly and infectious that I would associate it with my daughter."
The night of April 2 announced a conclusion of Mulan’s month-long tour of 10 performances in 5 cities, including Nanning, Changsha, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Xi'an. Since early March, when over 90 cast numbers from Ningbo Performance & Arts Group set out from Ningbo, they have traveled nearly 6,000 kilometers across five cities, leaving every show they performed sold out.
"Of the five cities, our drama in Changsha and Chongqing were sold out, and that in Chengdu set a new high with box office breaking one million yuan. For us, this means something special. Mulan has received a wider scope of affirmation, reflecting the success in the marketization operation of a dance drama. On the top of it, it demonstrates Ningbo’s distinctiveness in literary and artistic creation and resilience in dance drama creation." As is told by a person in charge of Ningbo Opera & Dance Theatre, after the cast returned to Ningbo for temporary rest, they would travel to Suzhou and Shanghai to continue their tour in East China from April 30 onwards. "We plan to stage Mulan at Tianran Stage Theater on April 23 and 24, and look forward to receiving the support from Ningbo’s audiences."
It is worth mentioning that Wang Yu and Xian Tian, the chief dancers from Ningbo Opera & Dance Theatre, played Mulan and General Wei respectively in the performance on April 2. "During the tour, Hao Ruoqi and Wang Yu play the role of Mulan by turns, and their interpretations of the character have their own distinctiveness. However, the actors in the second performance in Xi'an are all from Ningbo Opera & Dance Theatre, representing the highest level of current Ningbo dance drama."
Wang Yu began to learn dance at the age of 6 and became the chief dancer of Ningbo Opera & Dance Theatre at the age of 22. In order to master the stage, she has carefully studied every role and never stopped learning performance skills, improving music literacy, and figuring out the way to better express emotions through body language. It was a great challenge for her to turn from Yue'er, a gentle girl born in the south of Yangzi River in the dance drama The Red Dowry – maidens’ Dream to Mulan, a heroine galloping across the battlefield. As she said, "In my eyes, Mulan bears both love for her father and the country. She has a ballsy personality without distinct girlishness." Through more than a dozen performances, Wang Yu admitted that she had become closer and closer to this heroine.
The person in charge of Ningbo Song & Dance Theatre believed that the group of young actors came to Ningbo for the art of dance. Many domestic songs and dance theatres faced the challenge of high staff mobility, while Ningbo barely had the same problem. "Everyone worked very hard and paid lots of efforts, which to some extent was driven by our confidence in Mulan
