Meet the part-time players

You awake from a dream with a clear picture of yourself on stage, and with the sound of applause for your performance still ringing in your ears. Minutes later you stand before your bathroom mirror, and the cold reality that this was indeed a dream sets in as the person facing you says it is not you but others who are supposed to be stars. Instead you must get ready for another day in the real world.

There was nothing dreamlike about the music and flickering lights that fired Wu Ping's imagination about becoming a performer. They came from a television screen when she was about 10 years old at her home in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, 30 years ago.

She was entranced by those female dancers on screen, she says, wearing long, colorful traditional Chinese robes, with silky long sleeves and faint smiles like goddesses from ancient times.

Song Yuanyuan, a 31-year-old white-collar worker in Beijing, is devoted to dancing and acting. Photos Provided to China Daily

 

Rather than being a life-changing event that might even have set Wu on a career path, that cultural feast was enough to satiate her for the time being, and she diligently applied herself to school. Eventually she obtained a degree in international trade from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, in 2001, and thus made her entrance into the world of marketing.

Yet, for the 39-year-old, the passion for dance has never ebbed, even though she is realistic enough to acknowledge that she does not have the "perfect body" requisite for a professional Chinese classical dancer, let alone their experience and years of practice.

She reckons that the reason she joined the dance club about three years ago was a perfect one - because she loves dance.

"After a hard day's work I like to dance, which is a great way of relaxing," says Wu, who founded her own marketing and consulting company in 2010.

Every weekend, she attends a class at Payot Dance Studio, which Sun Yushuo, a Beijing Dance Academy graduate, opened about 10 years ago. The studio, which has more than 1,000 members and two shop fronts in downtown Beijing, offers classes covering many styles, including belly-dancing, salsa, jazz and traditional Chinese.

"Becoming educated in art is not just for young people but for adults, too," Sun says. "There are no boundaries. You can dance in your own way, as long as you feel comfortable and confident."

Sun, who choreographed government-sponsored galas for the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, before opening his studio, says the number of students is increasing. They range from college students to middle-aged people, with about 12 students in each class.

Wu says genres she has learned include belly-dancing and Chinese ethnic dances, but the one that has made the greatest impression on her is Chinese classical dance.

"At first I learned the basics of Chinese classical dance, such as hand gestures. The teacher is a professional dancer-choreographer who has a knack for being able to turn complicated Chinese classical dance theory and techniques into something that is easy to understand. The thing I enjoy most is dancing with paper fans and long sleeves. Whenever I happen to see myself in the mirror when I am dancing, it looks simply beautiful."

Even if Wu is content to be the passionate amateur, now and again she gets just a whiff of what it may feel like to be in the higher echelons.

"My teacher also choreographs short dance pieces for each of the members, which make us feel unique and like professionals," she says.

In addition, at the end of each year the dance studio host a gala that enables members to dance on stage at professional theaters.

"From makeup to costumes and music, everything is professional. It feels as though a dream has come true for me," Wu says.

She encourages her employees to take art courses, which she sees not just as a way to pass the time but also as something that adds immensely to the enjoyment of life.

Song Yuanyuan, 31, is just as passionate about Chinese classical dance. She went to the club three years ago simply wanting to do something that would help her get fit, she says.

Song, from Hebei province, is studying part-time for a master's degree in musicology at Renmin University of China in Beijing. She is the product of parents who aspired to see her educated in the arts, and as a child she learned the violin and erhu.

She now works in the human resources department of an international company with offices in central Beijing. Her parents' artistic encouragement has paid great dividends, and Song is a member of a drama club, most of whose members are white-collar workers in the area where she works.

Last year, she performed in an original drama at Dayin Theater in Beijing, along with a group of amateur actors.

"We wrote the script together - an environmental protection themed drama, that tells the story about our own lives of working" in the Central Business District area, Song says.

"We also got a professional director from the Central Academy of Drama to guide us. Though it's an amateur performance, we wanted it to be as professional as possible."

The drama club was formed about four years ago. Song says that apart from liking acting, it was her desire to build her self-confidence on stage that motivated her to join.

"It has been a challenge. I was afraid to speak in public and I was very nervous when I had to act in front of audiences. When I first joined the club and was asked to read lines with my partner, I was too nervous even to open my mouth. But now I can see how changed I am. These days I really like being on stage."

As much as Song enjoys dance, she can see areas in which she thinks the drama club excels, such as requiring teamwork and communication to present a complete work.

"It's a great place to meet people and make friends, too."

For dancers who wish to take a step closer, even a fleeting one, to performing like a professional, the annual Beijing Dance Festival, initiated by Beijing LDTX Dance Company five years ago, offers a stage. The festival, from July 18 to 30, will focus on educating amateurs in its first week, with 16 professional dance teachers from around the world giving public classes. In the second week about 20 shows from professional dance companies worldwide will be staged.

Song Tingting, who has been a dancer and teacher at Beijing LDTX Dance Company since 2005, says that she introduces the music first, then gets participants to move their bodies in their own way.

"For these amateurs there is nothing professional about dancing. What inspires them is pure passion. However, with encouragement and the right guidance, they can enjoy the art as an indispensable part of their lives."

Like Song, Ning Fangliang, a violinist, gives classes to music lovers, from young children to the middle aged.

"Unlike children, who start learning instruments with physical training, such as how to sit and how to use their fingers, adults start with listening to classical music," says Ning, a teacher at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

"The feeling of playing an instrument is very important to them."

Ning is also a member of the Amber Quartet, a chamber music group founded at the Central Conservatory of Music in 2005 that comprises Ning, violinist Su Yajing, viola player Wang Qi and cellist Yang Yichen. The quartet, which has won three major awards in the Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne, Australia, tours worldwide.

About two years ago, the band performed at a gala, and after its performance of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74, the Chinese writer Mo Yan, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 2012, gave a speech.

He said that when he was young, he had wanted to play erhu but had failed, Ning says.

"But he still loves music, and what he cannot express with words can be said with music. What Mo says really explains the power of music. In adult life we all feel great pressure. Playing an instrument or enjoying other art forms can provide wonderful respite from work and make you feel refreshed every day."

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn