Twenty-one years ago, a movie called Billy Elliot was released, Chinese translated as "Ballet Dream", or "Out of My Life", a story about love and perseverance, the pursuit of dreams, touched countless people.
The protagonist of the story is Billy, an 11-year-old boy who lives in the north of England, and his father originally hoped that he could become a boxer or play football, in short, it should be the kind of "sport that boys should engage in".
Billy, on the other hand, fell in love with the ballet next door to the boxing classroom, becoming the only boy in a group of dancing girls, and coincidentally, Billy showed a dance talent that was rare among his peers.
Stills from Billy Elliot
The story that follows revolves around how Billy gained her father's support and overcame various difficulties.
Fourteen years after the end of the film, my father came to the Royal Ballet to see Billy, the adult Billy was played by the famous British dancer Adam Cooper, and the performance was just Cooper's famous work, the men's version of "Swan Lake", and the final picture was frozen in the moment when the swan jumped.
The story is simple and simple like a fairy tale, and Cooper's flash of the last moment makes the fairy tale intertwined with reality. The film was loved by people in the early 21st century, and it was adapted into a ballet of the same name and staged all over the world.
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Chinese version of Billy Elliot
What reminds us of this old film is Chen Zhenwei, a new face in Vacheron Constantin's "One Of Not Many" young talent camp and a ballet dancer from Guangdong, China.
Vacheron Constantin 'One Of Not Many' young talent Chen Zhenwei
Chen Zhenwei's growth experience is quite similar to Billy's. Born in 1992 in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, he began to learn to dance with his sister from kindergarten, and like Billy, he was the only little boy in the dance class.
Also outstanding talent, love, persistence and diligence, Chen Zhenwei wrote the story of a Chinese teenager who successfully pursued his dream of ballet.
At the age of 12, he was admitted to the Guangzhou Art School to study, during which he won awards at home and abroad, and at the age of 18, he was awarded a full scholarship to enter the Houston Ballet in the United States.
After several years of study and practice in a foreign country, at the age of 25, he became the principal dancer of the Houston Ballet in the United States and starred as the male number one in the new version of the nutcracker by the famous choreographer Stanton Welch.
Prior to this, this work, which is regarded as one of the "four classic ballets", has its male protagonists being Western ballet dancers, and Chen Zhenwei created the first Chinese ballet dancer.
In 2020, Chen Zhenwei joined the prestigious New York City Ballet as a soloist. After 18 months of suspension, On September 25 this year, Chen Zhenwei made his New York debut.
Chen Zhenwei completed the premiere of the New York City Ballet
Chen Zhenwei is a leader in the field of ballet, but domestic audiences know more about him because he participated in the second season of the variety show "Dance Storm" in 2020.
During the recording of the variety show, in addition to the dance, Chen Zhenwei's figure comparable to the sculpture David has also become a topic of concern. Someone asked him about fitness tips, and he said that in addition to dancing, in order to present better stage works, he would also go to the gym and control his diet.
Because he is relatively tall, in order to maintain the balance of the ballet rotation, he must train a strong waist and abdomen muscles; and as a male ballet dancer, he also needs to move the dance partner, he will do strength training such as push-ups, and train the muscles of the arms and shoulders.
In a promotional video for Vacheron Constantin, Chen Zhenwei frankly said that using dance to express emotions and using physical language to tell the story of beauty is "not an innate ability, but the result of hard training and dedication day after day."
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Ballet and Haute Horlogerie
In the second season of "Dance Storm", whether it is classical ballet or modern dance, Chen Zhenwei can easily control it, and the integration and innovation are also familiar, bringing different audiovisual enjoyment to the audience.
Inspired by Zhang Guorong's film "The Legend of Ah Fei", he created a new dance "Footless Bird", which is different from classical ballet, and the dance movements of "Footless Bird" incorporate the understanding of birds flying, as well as the insights obtained from personal study experience and film lines.
Chen Zhenwei's "Footless Bird"
In another work, "Mr. Simple", Chen Zhenwei also integrates jazz dance into ballet, and combines the Beatles' pop music to show a happy and positive mood.
Chen Zhenwei said that he wants to bring ballet to the general audience in a more understandable way, ballet is not only classical, historical, Western, he hopes to become a messenger of ballet culture between the East and the West.
More than three years ago, as a guest principal artist at the Hong Kong Ballet, he also brought Houston's new version of the ballet "The Nutcracker" to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and other Asian cities.
As a group of white-skinned, blond hair with yellow skin and black hair, Chen Zhenwei himself has become one of the modern characteristics of the classical art of ballet, and he has injected oriental elements into western traditional ballet.
The love and persistence of ballet art, the integration and innovation of classical ballet and modern dance art, and the pursuit of artistic excellence are exactly the points of convergence that Vacheron Constantin found from Chen Zhenwei.
Chen Zhenwei has performed the Patrimony Heritage Series and the Tradenelle Transmission Series for Vacheron Constantin, which are regarded as "classic series" in the Vacheron Constantin product line and are a model of Vacheron Constantin's nearly 300 years of integrating the Haute Horlogerie tradition into contemporary style.
Patrimony Heritage Retrograde Weekly Calendar Watch
The Traditionnelle Transmission series of all-calendar watches
Patrimony Heritage Series Ultra-Thin Perpetual Calendar
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The round case, the slim body, the elegant and rounded lug arc, the complex technique and the pursuit of precision are the inheritance and continuation of Vacheron Constantin's exquisite watchmaking skills and exquisite aesthetic style on the classic series of watches.
The reverse jump shows a deep historical relationship with Vacheron Constantin, and there are several treasures in the Vacheron Constantin Heritage timepiece, a double reverse jump pocket watch from the beginning of the last century, and the boy's arm on the dial indicates the hour, and the girl indicates the minute.
The Saltarello watch of the 1990s combined the function of reverse jump and jump time, while the Mercator map watch was a masterpiece of double reverse jump and micro-painted enamel art.
Vacheron Constantin double-reverse vintage pocket watch
Vacheron Constantin Saltarello retrograde minute watch
Vacheron Constantin Mercator Map Double Retrograde Watch
Chen Zhenwei's Wrist Patrimony Heritage Series Reverse Jump Week Calendar Model, with a slender carved arrow-shaped reverse jumping pointer to indicate the calendar and the week, inherits the history of reverse jump, and the design is also more modern and simple.
In this series of advertising blockbusters filmed for Vacheron Constantin, Chen Zhenwei has a strong and graceful posture, stretched upward movements, soft and powerful, and expresses the common philosophy of dance art and haute watchmaking. ”
Chen Zhenwei shot a commercial for Vacheron Constantin
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One Of Not Many
Outstanding
Vacheron Constantin launched the "One Of Not Many" campaign in 2018, and every young talent it has found over the past three years is not a popular star, but only a prominent person in various niche fields.
They are designers, singer-songwriters, explorers, haute couture designers, dancers, whose talents resonate with haute couture.
They are also artists, and their works are also works of art, building bridges between human instincts, wisdom and nature, history and culture, inspiring people to think and explore.
Vacheron Constantin deeply understands each young talent, excavates the characteristics of each of them, and finds what they have in common with Vacheron Constantin as the most appropriate medium of expression.
Vacheron Constantin Young Talent - Dancer Chen Zhenwei
Vacheron Constantin Young Talent - Haute Couture Designer Yin Yiqing
Vacheron Constantin Young Talent – Explorer Corey Richard
Chen Zhenwei's inheritance and innovation of classical ballet art and the fusion of Eastern and Western cultures make him more suitable to interpret Vacheron Constantin classic series of watches.
As a haute couture designer, Yin Yiqing performs vacheron Constantin Égérie Ealing Goddess series, a women's series of watches inspired by haute couture itself.
Explorer Corey Richard wears the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Watch, which fully demonstrates the exploratory spirit and openness of the Overseas collection.
But they are not the spokesmen for Vacheron Constantin. The purpose of the "One Of Not Many Outstanding" publicity project is to convey a positive emotion to consumers through these flesh-and-blood young talents, trigger empathy, and make people understand and identify with Vacheron Constantin's core philosophy and values.
Every young talent wants to become the "One Of Not Many" in their field, not just a simple effort, nor a coincidence, but a hard practice that comes from love, perseverance and faith, hard work, and enduring endless loneliness.
Chen Zhenwei will share and pass on his love and understanding of dance to more people through free online ballet courses, and at the same time help more dance lovers so that more people can fall in love with dancing.
He told beginners in the video lesson, "We must keep a loving heart, only love, will take time and energy to train, to think about how to make it better."
Chen Zhenwei teaches for free through the Internet
Yin Yiqing is the only female designer of Chinese descent among the permanent members of the French Haute Couture Fashion Association. In this Western, male-dominated world, the hardships and difficulties can be imagined.
In past interviews, she has emphasized: "Only by adhering to the spirit of never compromise can we create extraordinary works that are charming and poetic." ”
"One Of Not Many" is the biggest common that Vacheron Constantin and young talents have found: the global watchmaking industry produces more than 1 billion timepieces a year, of which only 25 million are produced in Switzerland, of which only 500,000 meet the Haute Horlogerie standards, while Vacheron Constantin produces only more than 20,000 watches a year.
As the "One Of Not Many" of the Haute Horlogerie world, vacheron Constantin's historical loft craftsmen, contemporary watchmakers and masters of art are not the same as those young artists, who have unlimited love for the Haute Horlogerie they are engaged in, unremitting adherence to precision, dedication to perfection and never give up.
Since 1755, Vacheron Constantin has experienced several wars, financial crises, natural disasters, but never interrupted watchmaking, never stopped the pursuit of excellence, precision and innovation, whether it is complex functions or exquisite craftsmanship, Vacheron Constantin has left countless masterpieces in the history of fine watchmaking.
"Strive for excellence", francois Constantin said more than two hundred years ago, which should be the best summary and expression of the spirit of Vacheron Constantin Haute Horlogerie.