Ballet legend bows out
Batian. It is perhaps best known in the West as the ballet performed for former US president Richard Nixon during his visit to China in 1972.
Based on a 1961 film of the same name, which was directed by Xie Jin, it tells the story of a rural girl, Wu Qionghua, who escapes a life of slavery and joins an all-female Communist Party army battalion led by commander Hong Changqing on Hainan Island during the civil war in the early 1930s.
To better understand and portray the female soldiers, Li led the composer Wu Zuqiang, choreographers Jiang Zuhui and Wang Xixian, as well as ballet dancers Bai Shuxiang, Zhong Runliang and Liu Qingtang on a trip to Hainan.
“The dancers took off their ballet shoes and put on army boots. They received strict training just like soldiers,” says Feng Ying, a veteran ballet dancer and the director of the National Ballet of China, who has also performed the leading female role of Wu Qionghua.
“Li also incorporated the moves of Peking Opera into his choreography, which was pioneering,” adds Zhao Ruheng, renowned ballet dancer and former director of the National Ballet of China, who took the position after Li’s 10-year tenure ended in 1994.
“Li had made great contribution to the development of Chinese ballet. He also shared his vision about art playing an important role in the life of people. The missions of developing Chinese ballet and training homegrown ballet dancers had always been on his mind.”
Feng says that
is still evolving since a new generation of ballet dancers perform the piece every year.
“We are proud that the ballet piece not only appeals to audiences in China, but is also well-received when we tour abroad,” Feng says. “It portrays Chinese women in powerful roles that broke with the traditional image of weak women of the time. The spirit of the story is shared by women worldwide. It’s the best example of telling a Chinese story through a Western art form.”
Li, who was born in Harbin, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, graduated from North China University, the predecessor of Renmin University of China, with a major in theater. He started working with the Central Academy of Drama as a dancer in 1954 and, that same year, he was enrolled to study ballet at the Beijing Dance School and started choreographing his original dance pieces.
Established dancer Chen Ailian began studying traditional Chinese dance in Beijing in 1952. She met Li for the first time at Beijing Dance School in 1954 when Li invited her to dance in his choreographic work,
“It was the first time that I learned Tibetan dance moves and Li was inspiring to me,” recalls Chen, 79, who was born in Shanghai and grew up in an orphanage.
In 1959, under the instruction and direction of Russian experts,
(The Beautiful Mermaid) premiered in Beijing — it was the first Chinese dance drama to combine Western ballet with traditional Chinese dance moves. Li was one of the choreographers and Chen played the leading role.
“Few Chinese choreographers combined ballet and traditional Chinese dance as well as Li did then. He understood the language of the two dance forms,” Chen says.