求上得中,求中得下——“歌舞演故事”的逻辑起点与终点

Work the Best,Reach Only the Middle;Work the Middle,Come Out on the Bottom The Logical Origin and Destination of “Using Songs and Dance to Perform Stories”

本文基于当代中国舞剧更多的是依附于故事"文本"的文学叙事逻辑而尚未建构起体系化的自我叙事逻辑的这一事实,引发讨论。本文认为:一是"叙事"这一存在本身的复杂性与多元化,使得在展开故事叙述时的探索更为开放,叙事终点更具超越性;二是不同媒介叙事的自规律只能封闭在媒介特性中探究,不能按照以文学叙事为主导的叙事学削足适履。从而尝试性地通过时间与空间的维度探讨舞剧叙事的一些可行性路径而非框架性原则,提出创作应强化创作主体的价值判断、美学高度与精神深度,从而剔除"空心化"现象。

The post-1949 Chinese dance drama inherited the genes of western drama(play),traditional Chinese opera,and ballet in practice.And the story tradition constituted the tradition of creating a dance drama and was regarded as the precept.The fact was that narratology was dominated by researches on myths,folk tales,and novels as well as their narrative languages.A series of advantages in terms of time,depth,volume,and talent were given to those topics,resulting in Matthew effect that the strong got stronger and the weak got weaker.It was not surprising that the narratives of other non-verbal mediums are following and imitating literary narrative routines.Dance drama,however,is a weak linguistic or de-linguistic multimedia system.As it copies the logic ofliterary narratives to perform the story,dance drama seems like a giantbaby,stumbling while attaching to the maternal body.In other words,what is at stake is that dance drama has not established a systematic narrative logic;instead,it develops according to the literary narrative logic of 'storytelling.'Normally,the narratives of dance drama are understood as a means of developing the text of story through complex artistic creation.It seems to be a one-way question that converts the text of story into theatre techniques with dance as the primary element.Nonetheless,the text of story does not necessarily correspond to the narratives of dance drama,which is represented by the confusion of the narrative media.To be more precise,the text of dance drama not only is the desk book,guiding the creative process,but also acts as the narrative subject of dance drama to a certain extent.The self-contained nature of the text makes the creative process capitulate to it;and those that can be developed and created,or even 'danceable,'will be selected and packed into long and short sections.In other words,the narratives of a dance drama are developed in two lines: One is a continuous and complete story narration dominated by(written or oral) language.The other is a series of non-verbal inserts composed by different forms and elements,like a number oflonely islands.The two-track line is far from a step away from the real narratives of dance drama.Entering into the period of post-classical narratology,scholars,such as Herman,started to use the term 'narratology' in a broader sense and even replace it with 'narrative theory,' indicating an evolving trend.On the one hand,the exploration in narratives brought by the literary revolution had gone so far that narratives no longer followed Aristotle’s Poetics that a complete event consisted of beginning,development,and ending.Borrowing Milan Kundera’s words,'The novel’s spirit is the spirit of complexity,' the author believes that constructing form,creating language,and pursuing for spiritual depth and values can all be interpreted as the essence of 'complexity.' Otherwise,the existence of 'story' becomes skeptical.On the other hand,human beings narrated through movements,gestures,sounds,facial expressions,and drawings in preliterate society.For the past half century,more and more people have realized that verbal language is just one of the narrative media.According to Roland Barthes,'…all substances could be relied upon to accommodate man’s stories.' It should be said that the complexity or diversification of the existence of 'narrative' makes it more open to explore narratives and more transcendental narrative ends.Besides,the principles of different media narratives can only be studied on different media characteristics.It is untenable to blindly follow the narratology being typically applied to literary narration.Here comes the important problem of 'W&H.' Regarding a presupposed story structure,'why' is about why a story has to be told — an aesthetic issue that an artistic creator has to face with.'How' is about how a story will be told — a more specific issue relating to art study.'Why' and 'How' are the logical origin and destination of the narratives of dance drama.At the very beginning of creating a dance drama,the prototype of the story is only an idea,or a generator for creating a dance drama.Positioning it against the origin of contemporary art in art history,Chinese dance drama is no longer a qualifiedcarrier of complex and subtle stories,at best a synopsis or outline of the story.The text that lists all the events and courses of events is better than nothing.Regarding the aesthetic issue of 'Why,' the ultimate aesthetic appeal of dance drama requires the methods and purposes of using the story material to be different.During the creative process,the creator does not need to abide by the logic ofliterary narration,structuring the plots according to the time order or causation.And even the story itself can be hung outside the dance drama,being a 'story backboard.' Through the plots,the narratives purpose shaping the characters,expressing the emotions,clarifying the themes,highlighting the meanings,and revealing the ideas.Dance drama is known as an art of time and space.The real and the virtual,along with time and space,constitute a transcendental framework of narratives.Its narrative logic is the process of changing the 'painting' in space into the 'poem' as time flows.The spaces are spliced into an organic entirety through time — the logic chain needs to link seamlessly,like a luxury with neat sewing.'Painting' does not refer to the concept of the images frame by frame.Rather,it is a picturesque scene composed by a single space or multiple spaces.The inheritance of one space to another is based on certain strong logical relation,such as cause-effect,deduction,the primary and secondary,juxtaposition,and proportional relation.Of course,time is also an important element to constitute narrative logic.For example,in Boris Vian’s 'Le Rappel,' the protagonist throws himself off the Empire State Building to commit suicide.During his last moments,he sees people’s lives in different floors,triggering the memories of his own life.The time here is what Russell called as the subjective time,or plot time.It is particularly important in dance drama,which can be utilized,edited,and composed by the creator according to the narrative logic.Some elaborate part may represent an instant in objective time,while a brief part may represent half a century.The time and space of dance drama unite,like multiverse in both diachronic and synchronic way.The subjective time can be fast,slow,suspended,or retrograde — 'let the narrative have the final say.' The spatiotemporal relationship cannot be summarized but simply exemplified as follows: the reverse of time and space(e.g.,to build an inverse effect by presenting different levels of space),condensation or extension of time,and so on.Certainly,apart from the structural elements of space and time,the narratives of dance drama are executed in a pluralistic coexistence state,similar to the idea of 'interdisciplinary research.' The narrator needs to solve the problem of sign process — the signified and signifier of each means(such as dance,music,stage design and props,lightening,costume,and(continued from page 102)media) utilized by the narratives of dance drama.And the more complicated issue is to realize the narrative effectively and produce aesthetic significance in the process of assembling all the elements.