How “Swan Lake” became “The Red Detachment of Women”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i2.5980Keywords:
Chinese dance, Propaganda, Cultural Revolution, Maoist balletAbstract
This essay aims to highlight the important cultural role of dance in twentieth-century China, when it transformed from empire into a nation. The analysis will focus on one of the most representative ballets of the Cultural Revolution, The Red Detachment of Women (1964), one of the Eight Model Operas promoted by Mao Zedong from the point of view of the communist ideology. Starting from the socio-cultural context in which this sort of “revolutionist” ballet developed, inspired paradoxically to the Soviet ballet instead of the free and modern Western dance, the author discusses the relevant position of the female figure and the use of her body as compared to Chinese theatrical tradition.
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