“RED,” an underwater dance which presents the story of the rise of the Chinese nation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), was officially released to the public online Monday, Shenzhen Economic Daily reported yesterday.

The dance is the second installment of an underwater dance tetralogy produced by a Shenzhen media company. It was directed by Guo Jiyong and performed by renowned dancer Zhang Yashu.

Guo also directed the well-received first installment called “Rhapsody on the Luo River Goddess,” also known as “Pray.”

Zhang is a national first-class performer and the chief dancer of the Shenzhen Opera and Dance Theater.

Five pieces of red silk are used in the underwater dance “Red,” which is divided into four parts: the Dark Period, the Dawn, Setting Sail and a Leap Forward.

The video features a dancer dressed in orange falling into the water at the beginning of the performance. As the music changes in tempo, a beam of light symbolizing Marxism penetrates and the dancer jumps up.

The red silk that falls into the water represents both hope and the CPC. In the darkness and conflict, the red silk turns into a ribbon, and the dancer breaks through the shackles, grasp the red silk, and begins her slow ascent, which implies the country’s rise under the leadership of the Party.

Later, the red silk turns into five red flags. When the music gradually builds to a crescendo, the dancer jumps up and stretches herself, which implies that led by the CPC, the people will eventually meet the bright future.

The difficulty and intensity of the production of “Red” has exceeded that of “Rhapsody on the Luo River Goddess.” The latter was completed by eight people in 26 hours, while the former had 27 people and three days, according to the Daily.

“The complexity of the moral and emotional treatment of this work is unprecedented. The red silk is also quite difficult to control as it’s very easy to wrinkle and entangle underwater. It took us five or six hours to set up the scene,” Guo was quoted as saying.

According to Guo, the biggest difficulty in this shooting was the coordination of the dancers, props, lights and shadows, and other personnel in the underwater environment without sound.

(Zhang Yu)