Rural children put best foot forward

Ambitious outlook

The 50-something couple was inspired by El Sistema, a voluntary music education program in Venezuela in which musicians provide free classical music education to promote the artistic development of impoverished children and help them avoid drug abuse and crime.

The program has enabled some young people born in the slums to become world-class musicians.

"If those Venezuelan musicians can do it, we can also work it out. They started with music; we try to promote dancing, painting and music," Guan said.

Zhang was born in Yanshan. She used her dancing skills to leave the village and join the academy in Beijing, where she met Guan. In 2016, they began conducting field research in Naduo, administered by Yanshan.

Naduo used to be one of China's most impoverished villages, which meant a large number of residents moved away to find work.

Back then, it had a registered population of 347, but many people had gone out to look for jobs, leaving only seniors and children behind.

"The children faced the absence of parents and their love," Guan said.

They also had to shoulder the burden of laborious farm work for their grandparents. Before they could do their homework at night, they had to harvest hogweed on the mountains and tend corn and peppers.

Though many of the children said they felt they had been born with the talent to perform Yi folk dances, they had never understood that their traditional culture was deeply embedded in folk art.

Likewise, they found it difficult to grasp the necessity of learning ballet moves in a poverty-stricken village.

In response, Zhang convinced the first batch of children and their families that they could go far outside the village, even as far as Beijing, if they persevered with the dance lessons. In addition, the skills they learned might even bring them a good income someday. In January 2017, the couple volunteered to take 12 children to the capital, where they visited universities and attended cultural training courses.

In Tian'anmen Square, the children removed their down coats and performed the string dance－a popular Yi folk spectacle－to the sound of music played on traditional instruments.

During their three-day visit, the children always wore their beautiful, handmade ethnic costumes, complete with embroidered jackets and headdresses, and Guan asked friends in different fields to give them a warm welcome.

"I hope the children will realize that as long as they wear their traditional costume, perform Yi dances and sing their songs, they will always be respected and treated well," he said.

The project hasn't stopped at dance classes, though. The children also study music and art with professional piano and painting teachers, who help them feel the power and spirit of the creative life.

"Their first brushstrokes and first touch of the piano keys were taught by serious artists," Guan said.

During the summer and winter vacations, the couple always visited Naduo. Guan and some villagers cut down thick bamboo trees, removed the leaves, cleaned the trunks and hung them from branches for use as ballet practice barres.

Now, using the terraces as a stage and the sun as a spotlight, and accompanied by the sound of copper bells, the children stand on tiptoe and dance lightly in the bamboo forests and rice paddies.

The "art hall", a green military tent set up in the village, is often full of children attending lectures and lessons provided by the project.