Artists still have many hurdles to overcome in China

Despite her confidence in the relevance of modern dance and her resolution to deliver high quality performances, Gao Yanjinzi said artists still have many hurdles to overcome.

"It's too hard to survive on pure art," said Gao, artistic director of the Beijing Modern Dance Company.

Located in a quiet hutong (alleyway) near the tourist hotspot of Beijing's Lama Temple, the company is close to two theaters that cost a total of 2.5 million yuan ($396,148) to rent every year. The company doesn't have that sort of money, so she has to go to other theaters in search of a large rehearsal space. Every day the company is faced with this conundrum.

All the dancers shoulder family burdens and other pressures, said Gao. "The elders in their families urge them to find a stable job and get married, but they are all adamant that they want to be artists. It's like saying, 'I want to be a monk.' Then the seniors ask, 'Are you crazy? You're not a baby anymore. Why do I still have to send you money to pay your bills?'"

Another difficulty lies in staging productions, including hunting out the initial capital to cover various expenses such as hiring the stage and the costs of lighting, costumes, music and the dancers' wages. Once the production is ready to go, the artists will undertake promotional duties and try to sell the show.

"No one can put on a performance simply by standing high and shouting slogans," said Gao. "When pure artists like us try to design these realistic programs, we have to remind ourselves not to break down halfway through, but to persist till the end. Every time a performance is over, I feel like I've stripped off a layer of skin."

For her, the ideal scenario would be to have sponsors, similar to Guy and Myriam Ullens, who founded the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.

"I hope entrepreneurs will sponsor us because they are financially capable and they have a responsibility to promote culture, rather than making careful calculations for business exchanges," she said.

Gao's company has turned down several offers of commercial sponsorship, from cigarette and alcohol entrepreneurs who asked to have the name of their company incorporated in the troupe's name or wanted a story about their company incorporated in the performance. However, as Gao pointed out, sponsors such as the Hong Kong-based magnate Li Ka-shing, never demanded that the National Ballet of China should do anything for them.

"People like modern dance because it can incorporate many other art forms, such as plays, movies, music and painting. The interaction between different types of art surpasses the dance itself," Gao said. "Therefore, the support modern dance has received is not actually only for the dance, but for the creativity and thinking provided by this art form."