Shake your body

The Beijing Dance Festival offers a rare opportunity for amateur dancers like Qu Jiabo (center) to display their talent and passion for modern dance. Cui Meng / China Daily

One of the festival's highlights is Songs by Beijing LDTX Dance Company and Janis Claxton Dance from the United Kingdom. Provided to China Daily

The upcoming Beijing Dance Festival puts the spotlight on modern dance. Chen Nan reports.

It's a muggy and hot afternoon in Beijing, but that doesn't put off a group of modern dance enthusiasts. Staring at the mirror, they immerse themselves in the music.

Around 20 amateurs, age 20 to 40, they have discovered the joy of modern dance and gather at Beijing LDTX Dance Company every weekend for classes run by professional dancers from the company.

Qu Jiabo, a 31-year-old who moved from Haikou, Hainan province, to Beijing in 2006, works seven days a week with a film entertainment company, but nevertheless has found time to take part in the twice weekly classes since April 2011.

Dressed in black dancewear and a bright pink blouse, Qu's long hair is tied up in a bun and the one-and-a-half-hour session has brought a blush to her porcelain complexion.

She has performed Chinese folk dance and ballet since childhood and started modern dance while doing her master's degree at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.

"Both ballet and folk dances have strict rules. But modern dance is rebellious, pioneering and free. Even if you have never learned dancing, you can express yourself through modern dance," she says.

The "craziest thing" she has ever done was fly to Hong Kong in March 2011 for the modern dance show, Golden Lotus, an adaptation of the 16th-century Chinese erotic novel with the same title.

The dancer and choreographer of the show, Wang Yuanyuan, who founded Beijing Dance Theater (BDT), the first dance company in China to combine ballet with modern dance, in 2008, has been an idol of Qu for years.

"The show was not going to be performed in the mainland due to its sensitive and controversial subject, but I didn't want to miss it," Qu recalls.

Qu's love for modern dance has borne fruit.

During the Beijing Dance Festival from July 15-28, Qu will present her own choreographed work, Lost, which includes a four-minute solo by Qu and a two-minute duet with a male dancer.

Qu says the dance is a reflection on life. It is based on the violin piece, Hebrew Melody, by Jascha Heifetz, which inspired her.

"I once cried while I danced to the music," she says.

Beginning in March, Qu has been working on the dance every day after work. "Because there is no mirror at home, I turn off all the lights and look at myself in the window. I feel like the moment is mine."

Yet, Qu also faces some misunderstandings about her hobby. "Some people ask me whether modern dance is street dance. Some think I only take the classes to lose weight."

But the situation is changing.

Song Tingting, who has been a dancer and teacher at Beijing LDTX Dance Company since 2005, will perform Song, a joint production by Beijing LDTX Dance Company and Janis Claxton Dance, from the UK, during the festival.

She says that it's crucial to inform Chinese audiences of the meaning behind modern dance.

"Modern dance is not a dance genre. Unlike ballet, modern dance doesn't require any skills or rules. You can dance in your own way, as long as you feel comfortable and confident," says Song, 29, who comes from Shanghai and graduated from Beijing Dance Academy.

"Modern dance has no gender boundaries. Both men and women come to our classes. They enjoy moving their bodies to the music," she says.

First she introduces the music, then she asks the participants to move their bodies in their own way.

The upcoming Beijing Dance Festival, which has been developed from a one-week event to a two-week event, will in the first week focus on educating amateurs, with 14 professional dance teachers from around the world giving public classes. The second week will see 25 shows from professional dance companies from countries like the United States, the UK and Israel.

According to Willy Tsao, the artistic director and founder of Beijing LDTX Modern Dance Company, this format of activities was adopted at the Guangdong Dance Festival over the past eight years in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, and was popular.

When he was invited to teach modern dance in Guangzhou, in 1987, and to head the Guangdong Modern Dance Company in 1992, he was fully aware that there was an intrinsic difference between the artistic ideology of modern dance and the country's political ideology.

"There have been a lot of struggles and challenges but all serious arts are facing different forms of difficulties around the world," he says, adding modern dance in China is still a minority taste.

He also points out there is misconception that art should be understood and loved by all Chinese people.

"We should see the distinction between art and entertainment," he says.

Most of China's independent modern dance companies survive by touring around the world.

Tsao took Guangdong Modern Dance Company to perform in Montpellier, France, in 1993 and the program was an assortment of smaller works.

Previously, in 1993, he ran the Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company for 14 years.

Beijing LDTX Dance Company produces about four new programs a year and each program generates a box-office income of between 20,000 and 100,000 yuan ($3,140-15,700), depending on the scale of the production.

The company also works on commercial projects, such as the recent musical Yan'an Nursery, which generated 500,000 yuan for the company.

"The only way to let people know more about modern dance is to give more performances," Tsao says. "With the healthier environment, modern dance can then grow a following in due course."

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn.