The Ballet Like Flowers tells a humorous story about poverty alleviation in a remote Miao village from the perspective of Miao girl Aduo. The arrival of HE Lin, a beautiful and energetic volunteer, causes a big stir to the comfortable and idle lives of poor villagers in a remote Miao village. HE not only has to solve the problems on poverty alleviation in the village, but also has to transform the passive attitudes of villagers and carry out poverty alleviation with Ashan and others. To make matters more amusing, HE gets involved in the emotional entanglement between Aduo and Ashan. Those experiences enable her to appreciate the significance of targeted poverty alleviation. As everyone works hard to improve the condition of the village, she is gradually changed by them. Under the dramatic changes in the village, HE and her friends create a beautiful life that blooms like a flower.
Presenter: National Ballet of China
Artistic Director: FENG Ying
Lead Dancers: MA Xiaodong, WANG Ye, QUI Yunting, XU Yan, ZHAN Xinlu, FANG Mengying, WU Sicong, LI Wentao
Accompanied by National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra
Conductors: ZHANG Yi, HUANG Yi, LIU Ju
Concertmaster: WANG Xiaomao
Set Design and Production: Set Design Department of National Ballet of China
Chief Planner/ Managing Producer: FENG Ying
Chief Producer: YANG Xiong
Producers: WANG Jishu, ZHU Yan, ZHANG Jian
Artistic Instructor: DING Wei (Special Guest)
Choreographers: FEI Bo, ZHANG Zhenxin
Composer: WANG Danhong (Special Guest)
Playwright: LIU Jinni (Special Guest)
Set Designer: TAN Ze’en (Special Guest)
Lighting Designer: LIU Zhao
Costume Designer: YANG Donglin (Special Guest)
Make-up & Hair Style Designer: XU Bin
Assistant Set Designer: WANG Duo
Assistant Costume Designer: WU Shaohua (Special Guest)
Répétiteurs:LU Na, WANG Hao, WANG Qi
Miao Dance Coach: CUI Yuemei (Special Guest), ZHANG Lin (Special Guest)
Miao Folk Song Performers: LONG Changhui (Special Guest), WANG Min (Special Guest)
Coordinators of New Commissions: ZHANG Tianyu, MA Xiaoran
Set Supervisor: ZHANG Jianhua
Costume Supervisor: YUE Songshan
Special thanks to Ethic Song and Dance Troupe Qiandongnan Autonomous Prefecture of China & Ethic Song and Dance Troupe of Hu’nan Province
Cast
HE Lin: FANG Mengying/ XU Yan
Aduo: QIU Yunting/ WANG Ye/ ZHAN Xinlu
Ashan: MA Xiaodong/ LI Wentao/ WU Sicong
Ashi: WU Sicong, ZHANG Xi/ WANG Jiyu
Wife of Ashi: LI Jie/ HOU Shuang
Xiaohua: OU Mengru/ XIE Huan
Aunt Xiu: SHI Liyang
Bee-keeping Four Sisters: SUN Yimeng, YU Xiaoting, CHEN Haibei, LIN Xingbei
The cast is subject to the live performance.
Prologue
The peaks rise one after another and the journey is arduous and long. The beautiful and energetic figure of volunteer HE Lin becomes more and more clear as she strides with confidence and determination. A group of Miao villagers appear: the industrious Aunt Xiu and Ashan, the lively Aduo, the poor family of Ashi, and noisy girls, which pose unknown challenges to HE.
Act I, Scene I
HE’s first approach to help the poor encounters unexpected resistance. The lazy villagers are not interested in technical coaching by HE Lin and Ashan, and the appearance of the alcoholic Ashi messes up the class. Fortunately, Miao girl Aduo appears in time and relieves the situation. Seeing her beloved Ashan working closely with HE, Aduo feels upset. The disorder in the class is aggravated by the sadness of Ashi, who gets deserted by his wife. Looking at the listless lazy men and the separation of the family of Ashi, HE falls into a pensive mood.
Act I, Scene II
HE and Ashan walk through a sea of flowers in the mountains. They talk to labouring villagers and engage in fieldwork. Aduo spots HE and Ashan together while tending bees. Distracted from her work, she quietly follows them and is eventually noticed by Ashan. Ashi’s daughter Xiaohua suddenly rushes out of the woods and falls down. Feeling pity, HE takes the little girl in her arms and is shocked by the sight of her starving. Behind the beauty of the Miao village is the grim reality of isolation and poverty. Seeing the repetitive, monotonous actions of labouring villagers, which are helpless yet unyielding, HE feels a strong sense of duty and determines to bring a better future to the land.
Act I, Scene III
Aduo, who runs away after getting discovered, arrives at Aunt Xiu’s house with some other girls. They try to spy on HE and Ashan under the guise of a visit. However, everyone’s attention is drawn to the beautiful dress on the clothesline as soon as they get there. The daring ones take the dress off and try it on, then they mimic a model walk. While playing, two girls rip the dress. Ashan happens to pass by and runs into a panicked Aduo, who holds the ripped dress in her hands. Ashan wrongly blames Aduo, and she runs away in frustration.
Aunt Xiu mends HE’s dress by Miao embroidery under the lamp and explains the technique to her. After being decorated with Miao embroidery, the torn dress becomes exceptional pretty and endearing to her. She has a splendid vision of the Miao village: one embroidery hoop becomes a hundred hoops, and one embroiderer leads a hundred others to create colorful scenes and a bright future for the Miao village. Immersing herself with imagination, HE feels excitement.
Act II, Scene I
At night, Aduo tosses and turns restlessly. In a trance, she sees Ashan appearing, and they dance and sing merrily together. Suddenly, HE barges in. Ashan runs to her, leaving Aduo behind. He seems intimate with HE and begins to work with her…Aduo is furious; she tries again and again to push HE away and pull Ashan back, but she fails…Waking up with a start, Aduo sighs with relief, “I’m glad it was just a dream.”
Act II, Scene II
HE devotes herself to the undertakings of the Miao village. She helps villagers to change their minds and publicizes the latest policies on increasing income; she promotes local agriculture with modern technology, and plants new-type seedlings with the villagers; she helps with the development of tea planting, beekeeping and embroidery industries and solves the problems related to the marketing of products. Seeing HE’s efforts, Aduo’s attitude towards her changes from hostility to admiration.
HE comes arrives at Ashi’s home. She finds that Aduo is helping Xiaohua in curing Ashi’s alcohol addiction. The girls dress Xiaohua up and HE gives her a schoolbag, which moves Ashi to tears. HE tells Ashi that happiness has to be earned by himself and she hopes that Ashi could pull himself together and raise new hope for his life and family. Her advice makes all the regrets and self-hatred come flooding back to him. He throws away the bamboo wine cup with all his strength and holds up Xiaohua, exuding a remarkable power.
Act II, Scene III
After having undergone radical changes, the Miao village ushers in the “Ganqiu” Festival to celebrate the harvest. Everyone is dancing the popular Miao Bamboo Pole Dance. Both Aduo and He’s dances are applauded by villagers. The volunteer from the big city has finally been accepted by the Miao people. HE pushes Aduo and Ashan into the middle of the crowd and urges them to dance together. Aduo blushes, kissing Ashan on the cheek, and Ashan finally understands Aduo’s feeling for him. Then, HE announces more good news, revealing that Ashi’s wife has returned to him.
The “Miao drum” dance, the grandest performance of the festival, begins. With the drumbeats and music by the reed pipes, HE joins the dance. The majestic and passionate singing and dancing never seems to end.