An ancient scroll painting of blue-green landscape transformed into an ethereal dance epic.

Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting is a “poetic drama” in seven chapters: Scroll Unfolding, Seal Tracing, Silk Reeling, Minerals Exploring, Brush Making, Ink Grinding, and Painting Alive. In the drama, together with a modern-day Palace Museum researcher, the audience unfolds a scroll in multiple perspectives, wandering in the midst of legendary-like and charming traditional Chinese aesthetics.

It tells a story closely related to “A Panorama of Mountains and Rivers”, a masterpiece of traditional Chinese landscape painting characterised by its depiction of blue and green colors, which has a history of nearly 1,000 years and is said to have been painted by the 18-year-old ‘genius’ Ximeng. By adopting a narrative structure that interweaves space and time, this drama is set at a time when the painting was to be exhibited upon Ximeng’s finishing strokes. By fully devoting himself to the study of the painting, the researcher steps into Ximeng’s inner world, accompanying him during those precious moments when the young painter was making his greatest efforts. Through this experiential journey, the researcher is able to resonate with the painter’s youthful genius, exploring the combination of chance and necessity that led to the unique emergence of “A Panorama of Mountains and Rivers”, and interpreting the sentimental bonds between national cultural relics of the past and people in modern times.

On the stage, a richly-layered picturesque scene is stretched: the moon hangs high in the sky, as it was in the past thousands of years; under the moonlight, the researcher and Xi meng gaze into the other’s eyes; the dedicated researchers of the Palace Museum, along with the craftsmen from ancient times, jointly unveil a harmonious picture where feelings and scenes mingle.

The programme does not represent the views of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.