With the thought of how to most impressively honor the lacquer work ‘Return with glory’ of artist Nguyễn Khang – a work imbued with the spirit of traditional studiousness and morality, Viet Art View and the team implementing the program Quintessence of Vietnamese Fine Arts used the body language of dance to perform the characters in the painting.
The stage becomes the background of the work. Each actor performs the movements of each character in the work. If in the painting, the character is created by lines and colour, then on the performance stage, each stroke is translated into a dance move; each character is translated into an emotional body language.
The journey back to the homeland is not only the image on the panel, but is also vividly expressed on stage through the body language of dance, combined with the rhythm of drums, clappers, combined with lights, all in a colorful scene of people, costumes, and props to create a beautiful and vivid picture.
The unique creativity when fine arts and dance combine to honor a lacquer painting has created special aesthetic effects. At that time, the work is not just a image, it can “move” in the viewer’s mind. ‘Return with glory’ is not just a painting, it has become a visual symphony, where traditional cultural identity is recreated in contemporary theatrical language, while still preserving the spirit of the nation.
