What are the innovations of modern Chinese ballet compared to Western classical ballet?

Ballet was born in the Renaissance period of Western European art, with ancient Greece, ancient Rome, the vault of heaven yearning, the pursuit of a unique human movement symbol system, the Western European ballet art of physical gestures out of the Oriental dance is very different from the aesthetic characteristics of the art of ballet, which makes the art of ballet show a proud, confident, flamboyant, rule and domination of all the strong spirit of humanism. Although the history of European and American ballet has gone through different stages of development, and also formed various different schools, but they have changed a lot, are built on the psychological structure of Western culture, while the Chinese ballet has a subtle difference with the Western ballet, it is built on the basis of the Chinese dance, theater dance, folk dance, and has a national character.

The art of ballet is formed and developed on the basis of ancient Greek dance, ancient Roman pantomime and Italian professional comedy, medieval vaudeville, French and Italian court dances, as well as national folk dances of European countries. Its birthplace is in Italy.

In the 15th century, Italy was a more developed capitalist country, not only the Renaissance movement was first launched there, the art of ballet was also the first to emerge from there. At that time, the Italian country has not been unified, the monarchs of the city states in addition to often waging wars, attacking each other, but also often for political purposes to hold a number of banquets, song and dance in the banquets began, "Ballet on the floor" also came into being. Later, with the development of society, "ballet on the stage" continued to expand its performance content and form, including recitation, singing, playing and other forms.

Soon, the Italian "ballet on the mat" was introduced to France with the French emissaries, and took root in France. Its representative for the "Queen's Comedy Ballet". This dance because there are people, there are plots, there are contradictions, and both poetry recitation, music and dance interspersed with each other in the form of performance, and is considered by Western dance historians is the world's first "ballet".

The real formation of the art of ballet is in the reign of King Louis XIV of France, under his strong advocacy, the art of ballet in the French court and the rapid spread of the upper class society and development. Especially in the 17th century, the Enlightenment, a large number of bourgeois thinkers on the art of in-depth discussion, which is related to the idea of ballet art greatly influenced the development of European ballet art, under the influence of Voltaire's ideas, ballet is more from the opera of the aftermath of the show out of the art of a kind of art with an artistic plot. Since the Enlightenment, the content of ballet art works from the gods, emperors, aristocrats, to the life of the common people. For example, "The Unstoppable Daughter", which is one of the earliest ballets in the history of the world to reflect the life of the time, portraying the third-class common people's dance drama, which has a plot, content, and the characters of the emotions of the simple and unadorned, and very close to the real life.

Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, etc. greatly promote the development of art, their innovative ideas expressed in the opposition to the ballet as a recreational entertainment for the aristocrats, to make the ballet like a play, the performance of life, and advocate the ballet to have a realistic social content and educational significance, that is, the "ballet of the plot".

Till the end of the 18th century, at the beginning of the 19th century, a new literary trend emerged in Europe --- Romanticism. Romantic ballet is the "golden age" in the history of ballet, in the dance technique, choreography and performance forms have experienced a brilliant stage. During this period, there appeared a number of outstanding dance theorists, such as Viganò, Carlo Blassis and Théophile Gautier. There were also a number of outstanding performing artists, such as Marie Tallioni, Fanny Elsley and Auguste Bournonville. The great masterpieces of this period are, among others, The Nymphs, Giselle, and G Pui-Pui Ya.

The characteristics of ballet in this period can be summarized as follows: 1, changes in content and subject matter. Transcendental nymphs and ghosts replaced characters from myths, legends and ancient heroic tales, reflecting a sense of dissatisfaction and disappointment with reality, a quest for transcendence, or death to escape disappointment with reality, or an unrealistic quest to replace the desire for life. The themes are mostly chosen from ancient Greek and Roman myths and legends and the works of Dante, Shakespeare, Heine and other literary figures. 2, dance techniques and performances have been greatly developed, the toe dance technique has become an important factor in the lyrical expression of the female dancers, men's dance techniques have been further improved. 3, the performance form, the use of gas lamp lighting and the big curtain, reformed ballet costumes and shoes, resulting in a poetic mood. 4, the performance form, the performance form, the performance form, the use of gas lamp lighting and big curtain, reformed ballet costumes and shoes, producing a poetic mood. 4, the formation of the Romantic ballet art style: light and airy, passionate and unrestrained, performance of delicate skills, sincere emotions, full of vitality.

However, the golden age of Romantic ballet is extremely short, from the 1830s to the 1940s, just over a decade long stagnation and withering situation. From the second half of the 19th century, the center of European ballet gradually came to Russia, and in the Russian democratic revolutionary movement and the triumph of the realist revolution, the Russian tsar's strong advocacy and the assistance of the French ballet masters, the Russian ballet will be the world's top, the world-famous masterpieces of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker.

The development and characteristics of modern ballet:

Modern ballet is a product of the influence of modern Western culture, the classical ballet art in the late 19th century and early 20th century after accepting the influence of advanced cultural trends, but also accordingly some reforms and changes have occurred, it is specifically changed to: 1, trying to get rid of the three hundred years of traditional ballet on the physical and mental constraints of the performers, in the performance of form and content have made greater breakthroughs. In terms of performance form and content, there has been a big breakthrough. 2, the exploration of symphonic ballet has begun to take shape. 3, the art of ballet began to develop in the direction of nationalization.

The end of the 19th century, the beginning of the 20th century, the world ballet in general decline, the 18th century of the brilliant ballet art has become a subordinate to the art of opera. In order to find a new way out of the art of dance, aspirants from various countries began to explore the theory and practice. In Russia, the ballet masters in the "symphonic ballet" has achieved success, the most representative of which is Mikhail Fukin, the representative works of this period are: "Fairies", "Firebird", "Petrushka", "The Rite of Spring", "Romeo and Juliet", "Spartacus".

The center of world ballet shifted from Russia to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, largely through the efforts of Russian ballet masters, represented by George Balanchine. During his lifetime he created 150 works, most of which were plotless one-acts, also known as symphonic ballets. His works represent a high point in symphonic ballet. Balanchine's symphonic ballet is in the dance desert sand of the United States of America blossomed a strange flower. The works that best represent its creative spirit are Apollo, Serenade, and Crystal Palace.

British ballet is not like France, Russia, as the brilliant achievements, due to the puritanical intervention, ballet art in the United Kingdom is difficult to move, the end of the 19th century, the British ballet is mainly in the cabaret performances, performances of the repertoire of the classical ballet repertoire, the development of the second half of the twentieth century, the British ballet borrowed from the reference to the creation of a number of modern dance and the expression of the method, so that the art of national ballet The British ballet borrowed and quoted a lot of modern dance creation and expression methods, making the national ballet art increasingly mature and perfect. The Jungle Animals is the perfect combination of British ballet and modern dance containing philosophical works.

Spanish dance emphasizes on beautiful movement, and it is very elegant, decent and proud. Outwardly indifferent, but inside the rolling boiling blood, is the unique character of its national expression. Spanish modern ballet also has its national character, of which the most characteristic should be "Carmen". Its artistic achievement is manifested in 1, "Carmen" will be ballet, modern dance, jazz, breakdancing and Spanish democratic dance into one. 2, the performance of dancers with rich facial expressions. 3, the dance drama has a strong Spanish dance style.

The development and characteristics of modern ballet in China:

Relative to the development of European ballet art, the development of ballet and dance art in China is almost three centuries late. Although the art of ballet in China started late, it has shown the trend of moving forward at a super speed.

In the early 20th century there were foreign ballet art dance troupes to perform in our country, which had a positive impact on our ballet enlightenment education. Until after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the ballet art through the art development policy at that time really rise and development in China. During the period of the Soviet Union to visit China's dance troupes one after another, their performances on the development of Chinese ballet has had a great impact on the art of ballet jumped out of its birthplace in Europe, has gained a huge space for development in the world, and has become an international characteristic of the art of dance.

China since the 1950s began to invest in the ballet art system project, in 1954, the Beijing School of Dance Art was established, specializing in the European ballet theater section, specially invited experts from the Soviet Union classes. From 1957 to 1960, the school rehearsed four world-classic ballets, "Can't Close the Daughter", "Swan Lake", "The Pirate" and "Giselle". Until 1964, the Ministry of Culture and the Music Association, the Dance Association on the revolutionization of music and dance, nationalization, mass discussion, the results of the success and the development of China's art has played a positive role. Its concrete theoretical and practical results are the music and dance epic "The East is Red" and the modern Chinese ballet "The Red Detachment of Women" and "The White-haired Girl".

The Red Detachment of Women can be said to be a monumental masterpiece of Chinese ballet in the 20th century. It reflects the development and progress of Chinese ballet and the artistic achievements of Chinese national ballet. Its achievements are mainly manifested as follows: 1, the dance drama reveals melancholy Chinese characteristics from content to form. 2, the dance drama absorbs a large number of movements and dance shapes of Chinese classical dance, crane folk dance, and theatrical dance. 3, The Red Detachment of Women adopts the method of Chinese traditional drama structure to choreograph, and utilizes dance and pantomime techniques, as well as a number of choreographic techniques. 4, compared with the western ballet, the Chinese ballet has a more complex choreography structure, a large number of dance roles, and a large number of dance characters. structure, with a large number of roles and distinctive characters.

Nowadays, Chinese ballet has had a course of several decades in China, whether in teaching or dance practice has reached a very high level, Chinese ballet dancers often take the gold medal and silver medal in international competitions, Chinese ballet fully embodies the national style, temperament and cultural connotation, which can convey the cultural psychology of the Chinese people with the help of the art, style, demeanor and technique of ballet. Chinese ballet is the fruit of art that combines foreign forms with Chinese spiritual connotation, and it still has a broad development prospect in the new century.