A Contemporary Ballet Tribute to Xinjiang's Musical Legacy
Shanghai Ballet's latest original creation "Searching For Muqam" will make its world premiere on May 9 at the Shanghai International Dance Center Theater.
From the perspective of a young musician named Guli returning to her hometown, the ballet tells a root-seeking journey – from pursuing childhood memories to rediscovering the contemporary vitality of the Muqam.
The Xinjiang Uyghur Muqam art is a large-scale classical music suite that integrates song, dance, and instrumental music, prevalent in Uyghur-populated areas across northwest China's Xinjiang region.
Since ancient times, the Muqam has developed through a fusion of courtly and folk traditions, continuously drawing nourishment from folk songs, customs, and stories, making it appealing to both refined and popular tastes.
By the early 20th century, due to wars and social changes, the transmission of the Muqam became extremely difficult. China organized artists to carry out a series of notation and lyric documentation efforts, preserving the Muqam permanently in musical score form.
In 2005, the Muqam was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
"Searching For Muqam" features playwright Luo Huaizhen as screenwriter and Wang Ge as chief director. Over the past three years, the creative team of Shanghai Ballet has traveled to Xinjiang six times for fieldwork, grasping the true essence of the Muqam art through the singing and playing of veteran artists and the joyous songs of local villagers.
"The reason I have such great enthusiasm and drive to create this ballet is that I deeply love Chinese folk and ethnic dances," said Xin Lili, artistic director of Shanghai Ballet.
"Over the years, our creative goal has been to merge and resonate this world art form of ballet with Chinese culture, using new dance language and stage imagery to search for contemporary expressions of traditional Chinese culture."
The original score of this ballet extracts the scales, typical rhythms, and authentic timbres of the Muqam, transforming and reconstructing them through modern compositional techniques.
The costume design balances the functional needs of ballet performance with the distinctiveness of ethnic culture, pursuing a light, minimalist texture.
Performance info
Dates: May 9-10, 2pm/7:30pm
Tickets: 80-580 yuan
Venue: Shanghai International Dance Center Theater 上海国际舞蹈中心
Address: 1650 Hongqiao Rd 虹桥路1650号
