From Imitation To Representation-the Artistic Embodiment Of Dance "Silk Road"

"Silk Road" created by Gansu Dance Troupe in 1979, is the milestone in the development of Chinese contemporary dance. The advent of this dance starts a liberation boom of creative thought, which not only opens a new scene of Chinese dance drama, but also becomes a historical turning point for Dun Huang Art. In my opinion, the most outstanding artistic characteristic of "Silk Road" is reflected in its unique creation concept, which is to change the stillness Grotto art into dynamic dance art. Putting this concept into practice is just the creative process from imitation to representation.Although categorized into aesthetic proposition, Imitation and representation as the art theory still exerts enormous effects in the practice of dance drama. The creation of "Silk Road" is the best proof. Therefore, this paper analyzes, from the perspective of imitation and representation, the script and the dancing language of "Silk Road" and then concludes that its creation concept and process reflect is the changes from imitation to representation. Meanwhile, this point of view gets further verified by paying a close attention to the formation and development of Dun Huang Dance which is derived from "Silk Road", and to argument that "from imitation to representation" is their common creation reflection.