Beijing, 4 Feb (Xinhua) -- Cheerful and dynamic songs sounded one after another, with men, women, and children jumping and dancing to the beat of the music. The scene staged at the "Bird's Nest" at the National Stadium on the evening of the 4th was a warm-up session for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. The picture shows the performance before the opening ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ga
Square dancing at the Winter Olympics? Yes. The way to express the enthusiasm of ordinary people for the Winter Olympics and the enthusiasm for friends from all over the world is somewhat unexpected, but it is reasonable to think about it carefully.
Square dancing can be said to be the most familiar sport in Chinese. In parks, squares, neighborhoods, everywhere you look, you can find several active square dance teams almost everywhere. At a fixed time every day, accompanied by lively music, young and old danced, which is not only a scenery of the city, but also a way for Chinese to exercise.
In the square dance warm-up session that lasted about half an hour at the Bird's Nest, ordinary people of all ages participated, including children in little tiger costumes, aunts in yellow down jackets and red scarves, students in green suspender pants, and young people in Latin dance style costumes... Oh, of course, the ice pier, the mascot of this Winter Olympics. The ice pier is surrounded by jumping children, and the short arms swing to the music are unbearable.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. The picture shows the performance before the opening ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ziheng
At the same time as the main performance of the Bird's Nest, there were also people from 10 cities such as Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province, Harbin City in Heilongjiang Province, and Shenzhen City in Guangdong Province, who interacted with the Bird's Nest scene through the on-site large screen, showing the enthusiasm and passion of "300 million people participating in ice and snow sports".
Various styles and types of square dances are staged in turn, the actors are full of passion and fun, and the audience is also deeply affected, from time to time to beat the music or hum softly.
The actors who participated in the warm-up session were all students and ordinary citizens from universities, primary and secondary schools in Beijing and Hebei, where the Winter Olympics were held, the youngest of them was only 5 years old, and the oldest was more than 70 years old. They all have their own studies and jobs, using their spare time to rehearse and participate in performances at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
"China is a big country of square dance, and you can see in any city that when the people live happily, they will dance and sing, so I think (square dance) is very good." Zhang Yimou, general director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Winter Olympics, said.
As the sub-director of the warm-up performance, Meng Yan said that this performance can be called "Chinese-style marching square dance". "Our director team has made a careful design to express the passion, heat and emotion of each age, hoping to show our slogan 'Together to the Future' through this expression of 'Chinese-style marching square dance', so that the world can feel our passion and invitation."
The dance of the hands, the foot of the feet. The ancient Chinese believed that when various ways are not enough to express feelings, dance is the best way to express emotions in the chest. For ordinary chinese people, playing a piece of music that everyone is familiar with, dancing a square dance that everyone knows, what more comfortable way to express the joy and enthusiasm in everyone's heart?
Come on, dance the square dance, welcome the Winter Olympics, and move forward together!