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Dances with legends
At the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games last
month, an eight-minute contribution by a Chinese group of dancers offered those
watching a glimpse of the future four years from now. Few of the foreign spectators were aware the leading dancer Huang Doudou and the choreographer, Chen Weiya, co-operated with Zhang in his famous opera "Turandot" at the Forbidden City in 1998. And few would also know both dancers graduated from Beijing Dance Academy, the revered cradle of dancers in China. This month, this world-class institution celebrates its 50th anniversary. Located north of the scenic Zizhuyuan Park in western Beijing's Haidian District, the spacious campus covers 57,000 square metres. The dance building contains large studios, each with huge windows, grand pianos and modern lighting. Walking on the campus, an entire community based on dance reveals itself to the visitor. In white T-shirts marked with a striking Chinese character of "dancing," girl students can be seen tying up their hair before prancing to and fro like swans, while boys are just as nimble as they practise their moves. Hall of fame Sun Liyin is a former student who stayed on at the academy after graduation to teach. She says: "I am so excited to celebrate the anniversary with my teachers and students. I spent four years here and I loved my teachers, my dorm, the dinning hall and everything else here. That's why I decided to stay after graduation." Female students are known as "swans" and some have metaphorically flown away to feather their nest elsewhere, including the Phoenix TV anchor Li Hui, rising TV actress Li Xiaoran and, the now world-known actress Zhang Ziyi, who starred in Lee An's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Zhang Yimou's "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers." She is to star in the Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks SKG production "Memoirs of a Geisha," which will be directed by Rob Marshall and produced by Steven Spielberg. "The six years I spent at the Beijing Dance Academy left me with many sweet and bitter memories. The hard training not only taught me dance techniques, but made me more resolute and persistent, which has greatly benefited my work in movies," says the 25-year-old star. In the "House of Flying Daggers," Zhang's dancing skills thrilled audiences. Half a century ago, the Beijing Dance School was the predecessor of Beijing Dance Academy, which first opened on September 6, 1954. It was the country's first institute of dance. Dai Ailian (Ailien Tai), then 38, an overseas Chinese ballerina, was appointed the first president of the institute. Dai, who was born to a Chinese family from Trinidad, in the Caribbean, and learned ballet in London. She returned to China in 1940. Today her statue is displayed at the British Royal Dance Academy in London, to honour her contribution to popularizing ballet in China. Before the school was formally opened, the ballerina Elena Oleg Alexandrovna, from the former Soviet Union, had helped to establish a regime based on that of the renowned Bolshoi Academy in Moscow. Meanwhile, auditions were held across the country to recruit talented students. A total of 198 eager children became the first students. Xu Dingzhong, now the professor of the Ballet Department of the Academy, was among the first group of pupils. He was among the 1,000 children in Shanghai who auditioned for a place in the first class of the dance school in 1954. Only 10 were selected to go to Beijing. "Alexandrovna made us begin work each morning at about 6:30 and we finished after 9 at night. She had meetings with the teachers, taught students every day, designed the school uniforms, exercise outfits and of course, the shoes," recalls Xu. White swan The Russian ballerina taught for three and a-half years during which time she also prepared the students for performances that were attended primarily by Chinese leaders such as Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai, and foreign guests. In 1958, the school successfully performed "Swan Lake." Bai Shuxiang, now the chairwoman of Chinese Dancers' Association, became the first Chinese white swan. In the following year, the school formed the first Chinese ballet troupe which composed of Bai and 21 other dancers and an 18-member orchestra - and it soon became the Central Ballet of China, now the National Ballet of China. "We started with Russian style. It was incredible that we Chinese dancers could perform 'Swan Lake' in such a short time. Many people think the first Chinese swan was created at the Central Ballet of China. In fact, it was created at the Beijing Dance School, which is the real cradle of Chinese ballet," says Bai. In 1960, when a rift developed between China and the former Soviet Union, the latter abruptly withdrew all their specialists. The academy, like many Chinese institutions, was left on its own but continued well enough until the disastrous "cultural revolution" (1966-76). From 1966 to 1973, the academy, along with all schools of formal higher learning, was closed. When the school reopened, China was still closed to the West. It was not until a few years later that the academy began regularly recruiting foreign dance specialists. Ben Stevenson, from the US city of Houston, was one of the choreographers who contributed greatly to the opening influences of dance pedagogy and choreography from outside China in the years immediately after the "cultural revolution." Although its ballet pedagogy still follows Russian style, the influences of the British Royal Dance Academy and the Royal Danish Ballet have all had an impact on the academy's training and repertoire. From 1980, the school became the Beijing Dance Academy and began its college programme. The professional curriculum today offers majors in Chinese classical dance, Chinese folk dance, ballet, modern dance, choreography, dance theory and social dance, also known as gymnastic dance. According to Wang Guobing, current president of the academy, since the 1990s, the school has expanded its curriculum from that of a strictly professional training centre to a more versatile institute. It conducts research, develops choreography - especially in modern dance - and has foreign language studies. In 2001, the Department of Musical, Art Design and Art Communications and Education have been added. Each year, the academy houses about 20 foreign students while sending its own artists abroad to perform or teach. Young dancers from more than 20 countries have studied here. Grand master In the past half a century, the Beijing Dance Academy has produced an astonishing array of accomplished dancers and professors, such as Xu Dingzhong. During the last 45 years, Xu has been involved directly or indirectly with nearly every aspect of the development of ballet in his country. His career has taken him around the world as a guest teacher, competition judge and director/coach for Chinese dancers entering international competitions. Some of his students now have international careers. Having given up the directorship that he held from 1987-1992, he now concentrates on training young ballet dancers, as well as those who will train the next generation of ballet teachers. "Each year, we audition about 7,000 students around the country. In each place it takes about one week to look at the children aged 10. We check their body structure and so on. Of those, about 400 to 500 come to Beijing in the spring for the final auditions. In addition to dance training, they will continue secondary education at the academy." Promising dancers often advance to professional companies in China, such as the National Ballet of China, and others are invited to join external troupes. Shen Peiyi, 38, is one of the top students the academy has reared. A native of South China's Guangdong Province, Shen was admitted to the academy in 1978 when she was only 12 years old. She learned Chinese classical dance at the academy for eight years. Upon graduation, she won the first prize in the 1986 National Dance Competition and joined the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Two years later, then 22, Shen was awarded the First-Class Dancer accolade, the youngest receiver of the prize issued by Ministry of Culture. Shen's trip back to the academy allows her to recall in detail the days she spent there. "What I learned from the academy has become like a layer of my skin that I could never shred. No matter how far away I am from it, I could not be out of its influence," she says. "At that time, I was a girl in a day-dream. One day after training, I stood in a beam of sunshine outside the studio, thinking: 'I am a tender seedling which needs enough sunshine, water and good care.' I received all that from my teachers here. Though I was a naughty student, my teachers were very patient with me." She also describes the close relationship between teachers and students. "It was like a family... There is a bond of trust between faculty and students." She adds: "I opened a dance class a few years ago. I hope to support more kids who are showing great promise as a dancer." Half a century on, the old adage that legends dance to the beat of legends, echoes loudly around this hallowed campus.
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