Chinese traditional painting and dance are two important parts of the art world. But what about when they meet each other?
A dance drama called The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting was shown on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala. It became popular overnight.
According to CCTV, this dance got the idea from the 900-year-old Chinese painting—A Panoruma of Rivers and Mountains （《千里江山图》）, which was created by Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng when he was about 18 years old.
A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains is the only extant（尚存的）work by Wang. Now the painting is at the Palace Museum. It has been on show to the public only four times since 1949. The 11.9-meter-long painting records people's lives and the natural scenery（景色）including mountains, rivers and villages of that time.
The dance show tells the story of a researcher who has worked hard to study the painting. By chance, the researcher travels back in time to see the moment when Wang was about to finish the work. As the painting was finished, the researcher guides the audience（观众）into the world of the painter. The dance show provides the audience with a new experience to better learn about the work. It shows the process of how painting is done.
The dancers each had a different hairstyle, which looked like a mountain rock. The clothes that they wore were color of green and blue, which is also poetic show of the mountains and rivers. When the dancers danced beautifully, the audience seemed to be looking at the moving mountains and rivers. Huge mountains and rivers are coming to life! More than a thousand years later, green mountains and rivers still wow people as they did long ago.
In recent years, more and more modern shows with Chinese traditional culture have received a warm welcome, especially among young people. They show great love to Chinese culture and are proud of it.
