The Formal Characteristics Of The Performance Art Of Kunqu

This article intends to explore the formal characteristics of the performance art of Kunqu which are the synthetic nature and the sketch-free nature. As for the synthetic nature,Kunqu is a synthetic art in which singing and dancing is the all and the one,and singing and performing have got equal attention. Kunqu performance claims "four skills and five means". On the Kunqu stage,the players not only express meaning and emotion through singing,but also mold many beautiful sculpts through dancing and the main body-language of the "five means". At the same time,the players place their thought and sentiment on body-act,and the audience enjoy aesthetic feeling in vision and gain deep soul resonance. As for the sketch-free nature,Kunqu performance doesn't seek the exact imitation of life objects,but it seeks to manifest their characteristics and essences through generalizing,comparing,imagining and exaggerating. It attaches importance to spiritual similarity and artistic conception. It accords with the nature,but exceeds the nature. Between similarity and not-similarity,it ultimately breaks through the limit of life's natural form and attains the ideal state in which reality and beauty unites. On the Kunqu stage,to seek for this aesthetic ideal,natural life formation such as hominine body,behavior,expression and environment has been abstracted into typical art orders. These orders understand and materialize life through the artistic beauty which comes from and exceeds natural life. The seeking of this aesthetic ideal is embodied into sketch-free principles:formularism of the performance,freedom of time and space,fabrication of the stage property and classification of characters.