凝固与流动,纠葛与残酷——谈艾夫曼心理芭蕾《罗丹》

Solidification and Flow, Entanglement and Cruelty On Eifman's Psychological Ballet Rodin

2017年正逢法国雕塑大师奥古斯特?·?罗丹逝世100周年,俄罗斯芭蕾大师鲍里斯?·?艾夫曼携力作《罗丹》登上了中国的舞台,以向罗丹致敬。这部心理芭蕾作品以19世纪法国最有影响的雕塑家罗丹的故事为创作原型,用心理芭蕾的手法描绘了罗丹与恋人克洛代尔充满纠葛的悲剧爱情。本文通过将舞剧中出现的造型对照罗丹的雕塑作品进行分析,探究艾夫曼选取这些雕塑原型作为舞剧主要构成部分的原因及用意,以及以爱情的矛盾冲突建构舞剧的戏剧性,并从中探寻石膏雕塑与肉体真身艺术表现之间的有机联系。

To celebrate the centennial of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s death in 2017, Russian ballet master Boris Eifman brought his ballet Rodin to stage in Beijing, China, to pay tribute to Rodin. The psychological ballet Rodin was the Golden Mask and Golden Soffit Winner, the winner of the highest theater awards of St. Petersburg, which proves that the theatrical and emotional conflicts represented by Eifman’s ballet are widely recognized. Rodin was premiered at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on 22 nd November, 2011. Based on the life story of Rodin, the most influential sculptor in the 19 th-century France, Eifman illustrates the life, artistic creation, and love story between Rodin and his disciple, lover, and ultimately his rival, Camille Claudel, through the psychological ballet. The ballet is about Rodin’s passionate affair with Claudel;their love is full of dramatic entanglements. They were an integrated whole in life, while they learned from and inspire each other in arts. During that period when men were dominant over women, Claudel had not received proper acknowledgement since the time when she chose to be a sculptress. Eventually, this sculptress’ lover grew jealous of her talents and refused to leave his wife. It gave Claudel a tremendous mental blow, and she was diagnosed as having schizophrenia. Finally, she died in obscurity, misery, and loneliness. Eifman represents a great quantity of sculpture process with modern ballet body language. This article compares the classical postures in the ballet with Rodin’s sculptural works. Based on analysis, it explores the reason and intention of Eifman’s selection of these sculptures as the main elements of the ballet. The master sculptor Rodin’s three representative sculptures, The Eternal Idol, The Kiss, and The Gates of Hell, are represented in the ballet with their dance images being built. Corresponding to the plots, the three works represent the chain of destiny of the hero and heroine—from falling in love to the destruction, which links closely with the logic. The audiences walk in the fantasy world between the illusion and reality created by the artists, feel the power of the body and emotional entanglements, and experience Eifman’s unpredictable and amazing creativity in the mysterious and artistic game shifted from solidification to flow. Eifman’s unique and delicate interpretation of Rodin—manipulating the flowing body movements against the solid sculptures, highlighting the willful catharsis within the implicit narratives—has pushed the hero and heroine into the teeth of emotional entanglements and cruel woes. The passionate duets and moving sculptures presented on stage arouse irresistible lust, and the textures of the sculptures are interpreted smartly and meticulously by human body. Through the artistic approach of ballet, Eifman shows the pain of the characters truly in front of the audience, providing the latter a spiritual feast. The psychological ballet Rodin demonstrates the contradiction of love in the sculpture world constructed by a ballet master, trying to explore the organic connection between the sculptures and the artistic expression of the physical performance.