htmlOn October 30th to 31st, the American Martha Gram Modern Dance Group will be staged at the National Grand Theater with its dance collection "Silent Sorrow and Joy". On October 29, Dennis Vio, the rehearsal director of Martha Gram Modern Dance Company, joined hands with chief dancers Lloyd Knight and Xinying to debut and held a dance classroom event. The Martha Graham Dance Company, founded in 1926, has a history of 92 years. Its founder, Martha Graham, is a 20th-century art master who is on par with the painter Picasso and composer Stravinsky. He is respected by the world as the "Mother of Modern Dance".
In the early days of the dance troupe, Martha Grum, who pursued pure and unmodified movements, was inspired by the pace of the zoo lion and explored a dance system based on the skills of "contraction-relaxation". Grum believed that the perception of the body in dance is the primary, and breathing is the most important part of all perceptions and the basic movement of the body. This pure, direct and unique way of expression quickly made Martha Gram's technique a popular dance system around the world and a cornerstone of the development of modern dance.
Martha Gram, photo provided by the National Grand Theater
In the performance on October 30, the Martha Gram Modern Dance Group will present the "pure bloodline" Gram dance system with five dance works ("Dark Ranch Suite", "Ecstasy", "Pathy Variations", "Labyrinth", and "Forest"), conveying the free and unruly "Glam" modern dance spirit.
In the Martha Gram Modern Dance Troupe, the Chinese dancer Xin Ying is the third Chinese chief dancer after Xu Fangyi and Jian Peiru, and is also the first mainland Chinese chief dancer. A reporter from the Beijing News interviewed Xin Ying to listen to her understanding of Martha Gram Modern Dance Company and her own growth process.
"The Maze" choreographed by Martha Gram. Photo provided by the National Grand Theater
went to the United States due to an earthquake, lamenting that Gram's technology is complete
Xin Ying liked dancing since she was a child. In 2000, she was admitted to the choreography and director major of Nanjing Academy of Arts . In her opinion, the only benefit of college was to know Martha Grum and Modern Dance from that period. After graduating from university in 2004, she and her mother came to Mianyang, Sichuan to live. What changed her subsequent life trajectory was the earthquake on May 12, 2008.
She recalled that on the first "June 1 Children's Day" after the earthquake, she went to get the stage costumes made before the earthquake. The person who made the costumes told her that many of the costumes she had booked before were now no one came to pick them up. At that time, Xin Ying felt that many people could obviously continue dancing on the stage, but because of the earthquake, she decided to give up her identity as a university teacher at that time and continue to study dance.
At that time, she was only limited to the noun understanding of Martha Gram. In fact, there was no concept of what the technology of "contraction-relaxation" was. After nearly a year and a half of preparation, Xin Ying officially went to New York, USA to study modern dance in 2010, looking for Martha Gram.
After entering school, she thought she had a certain foundation in learning dance from the age of six, but she was assigned to the primary class to start learning. Xin Ying said, "In the Martha Gram Theater, teachers always emphasize how dancers use muscles, but in China, they rarely hear teachers tell you the relationship between muscles and body. After learning Gram's technique, they found that this training method will not be expressed directly, but will first tell the dancers to perceive their physical state."
For Xin Ying, at that time, she really fell in love with modern dance because she could finally express her emotions with her real emotions and body. Xin Ying believes that "Martha Gram has always been seeking a texture. It is not like many contemporary dances today, just pursuing a style. No modern dance technology can be complete to this level. This kind of training is very valuable."
"Dark Ranch Suite" choreographed by Martha Gram. Photo provided by National Grand Theater
"Ecstasy" choreographed by Martha Gram.Photo provided by the National Grand Theater
was promoted to chief three years ago. This time my mother will also come to see
In 2015, Xin Ying returned to China with the Martha Gram Modern Dance Troupe for the first time and completed the solo dance "Deep Music" at the National Grand Theater. After returning to New York, the dance troupe announced the five dancers promoted to the new season of the performance, and Xin Ying was the promoted chief dancer among them. The dance troupe currently has five chiefs. Among the two female chief dancers, there is also Jian Peiru from Taiwan. Before that, Taiwanese dancer Xu Fangyi was also another very prominent Chinese chief of the Martha Gram Modern Dance Troupe, and Xin Ying was the first mainland dancer to be promoted to chief.
Talking about the feeling of this performance, Xin Ying said that every time she comes back, she will have a different feeling. The difference this time is that she will come back for the first time after being promoted to chief. "Mom has never been to the United States, so she can only see me dancing when I return home, so she will also come to the National Grand Theater to watch my performance this time."
Beijing News reporter Liu Zhen Editor Tian Weini Proofreading Lu Aiying
