从基训课透视舞蹈专业教学的文化自觉

Basic Training Classes and Cultural Self-awareness in the Teaching for Dance Majors

在舞蹈专业人才培养过程中出现的文化自觉现象,应该得到更多的重视和思考。北京舞蹈学院近期的两堂基训汇报课中体现出的文化自觉意识,是较为典型的例子。在基训课中渗透本民族的传统文化观念,立足传统文化进行教学实践,使学生对传统身体文化产生应有的价值自信、文化自信和身体自信,将成为他们今后从业的重要财富。这种学习过程,对职业化民间舞人和中国现代舞者的培养来说,关乎其职业思想、艺术观念和文化品格。

In the field of dance art, the phenomenon of cultural selfawareness has already emerged since many years ago.A great number of dance works have reflected the close ties with the traditional culture, which represents the autonomous ability in the creative field of dance during the period of the cultural transition. Similarly, in the field of the teaching for dance majors, there are some obvious phenomena of cultural self-awareness in the process of talent cultivation. These phenomena, in a deeper level,silently exert a chronic effect on the development of dance art. Only by highlighting the cultural awareness in the educational field can we cultivate dance talents with more cultural awareness and cultural confidence. Only in this way can the autonomous ability of the whole dance community be strengthened in the cultural transition period, making it in service of our country’s cultural strategy as well as of different aspects in terms of society,universal education, artistic creation, and theoretical research, resulting in a more powerful social impact.In the first half of the year 2016, the author watched two demonstration classes on basic technique training at Beijing Dance Academy. One is the demonstration class of the research project Movement of 'Qi': Modern Dance Technique Training, for which Mr. SHUAI Xiao-jun is responsible. The main content is to observe the body from the traditional philosophical view in the training of modern dance techniques and emphasize the integration of breath and body movements, so as to solve the dancers’ problem of separating breath from form. Another one is the technique class of Chinese ethnic and folk dance, named Basic Dance Technique Training under the Idea of Yin and Yang in I Ching, with TIAN Jing and AN Tuan-jie as the two teachers of the female class and male class, respectively. The class is based on one of the traditional Chinese philosophical classics, I Ching,observing the body from the view of Yin and Yang and referring to the movement theory of Tai Chi. It makes a new attempt on the folk dance training and a meaningful exploration on the talent training for professional folk dance. The two classes of different dance types yet both construct the teaching material on the theoretical basis of traditional philosophy. This phenomenon aroused my attention.When it comes to the problem whether the basic technique classes of the departments of Chinese ethnic and folk dance and modern dance shall foster students’ artistic values such as the aesthetics, the author believes that we must understand the technique classes at the cultural level rather than simply take them as a tool to develop and train for the sake of body movement. As for the dance majors in an art institution, the basic technique classes should expose the students to the universal aesthetic standards in the training process. This kind of cultivation will have impact on the establishment of the students’ artistic values as well as their performances and teachings in the future. Also, it will inevitably produce subtle influence on fostering the students’ artistic values.In the process of training professional Chinese ethnic and folk dance talents, two teachers, TIAN Jing and AN Tuan-jie, along with other disciplinary experts, contributed to the thoughts of the basic training material, trying to embody the cultural unity in the physical forms of the professional talents of folk dance in the basic technique classes. As regards cultivating professional talents for folk dance, it is worth exploring cultural unity in the physical forms based on cultural ethnicity. In comparison, the basic technique classes of modern dance have always been open and diversified. As modern dancers in China,they should establish their unique body forms and present their own cultural characteristics. It is just a process to borrow the western way to train the body rather than the goal. How the 'Chinese use the western system for reference,' to be more specific, how to learn from the cultural form of the western dance to express Chinese identity and Chinese culture, is the problem that Chinese modern dance must solve by itself.Many problems in the field of dance art have direct connections with the professional talent training, such as the resemblance of the folk dance works. If we help students establish a sense of cultural self-awareness with plans, methods, and steps in the education and teaching,making them learn voluntarily to explore the history and reason within a certain kind of regional or ethnic culture,explore the importing cultures such as techniques for choreography and creative ideas, and choose rationally and wisely among different cultures, avoiding 'taking and using something without thinking the origin and the outcome,' the students will then naturally seek for a balance between the cultural content and dance composition techniques rather than develop into a blind'technique dependence syndrome' in the future creation.Infiltrating the traditional cultural concepts of our nation into basic technique classes and conducting teaching practice based on traditional culture will enable the students to have proper value confidence, cultural confidence, and body confidence for traditional body culture, which shall be an important asset for their future practice. The learning process is closely related to professional ideas, artistic concepts, and cultural quality for cultivating professional folk dancers and Chinese modern dancers.