China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Liu Shangjun
At the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, 96 young people from the Beijing Dance Academy joined hands to perform the story of "Building a Snowflake", and among the participating students, there were 3 Taiwanese students and 4 Macao students.
More unity is a vivid embodiment of the Olympic motto, and it also alludes to the theme of the opening ceremony "Building a Snowflake".
Li Ruomeng, a freshman at the Beijing Dance Academy and a young man from Macao, stretched her dance posture at that moment. She said that at that moment, she truly felt the connotation of "community of human destiny", and young people in different regions did the same thing in the same time and space, more integrated and more united.
"No matter where you come from, every snowflake is different, and we must use an inclusive mentality to make all snowflakes cohesive and able to condense together." Wang Yuanyuan, program director and head of the Beijing Contemporary Ballet, said in an interview with the media.
"Building a Snowflake" chooses the expression of modern ballet, and after more than half a year of revision, it took 4 months to choreograph. This is also the first time that Wang Yuanyuan has cooperated with young actors, "their understanding ability is relatively weak, and some actions have to be rehearsed a lot to achieve requirements." Wang Yuanyuan selected 9 classmates as the lead dancer. Xu Rongyu, a Macao youth majoring in modern dance, is one of them.
Xu Rongyu took a photo at the scene. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
In the rehearsal, Xu Rongyu took the lead in learning the movements of all positions on the field, and then taught everyone. "The stage is very large, the distance between everyone is also very far, everyone is jumping with the afterglow, and it is necessary to jump very together", in addition to the demonstration, Xu Rongyu also explained the professional knowledge for the students, starting from the power point of the body's center of gravity, to the starting hand, raising the legs, eyes and other limb directions and emotional states, polishing and polishing every action.
"96 people jumping like one person" is hard. Taiwanese youth Xiao Xinyu is shorter, and she almost completed most of the performances on her feet.
Taiwanese youth Xiao Xinyu. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
A lot of the rehearsals take place at night. Chen Yanni, a young taiwanese, remembers that the outdoor temperature dropped to minus 10 degrees, and everyone was frozen stiffly, still trying to run and jump in the empty bird's nest, while running, she heard the sisters around her shouting "come on". Chen Yanni's heart gushed with a warm current, "It seems that as long as we hold the hands of the classmates next to us, we can persist together." ”
Taiwanese youth Chen Yanni (Photo provided by interviewee)
The latest rehearsal ended at midnight and lasted 4 hours. It was a snowy day, many students fell, "after falling down, everyone did not pause, immediately got up and jumped", how many times to smile against the cold wind, how many times to fall and get up, how many times to the empty audience constantly modify and rehearse, Xu Rongyu said, no classmate has interrupted the rehearsal for their own reasons, "We are a team with a sense of responsibility and mission." ”
In the view of Han Linqi, secretary of the Youth League Committee of the Beijing Dance Academy, more unity is the "soul of the group" of 96 small snowflakes, and it is the spiritual core of the cooperation between young people from the mainland, Macao and Taiwan, which is reflected in all aspects of rehearsal performances and learning life. Li Yuan, the lead teacher, noticed that when the Macau and Taiwanese students introduced themselves, "they will definitely add the word Chinese." ”
In 2021, Li Yuan served as a full-time counselor in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to help students familiarize themselves with the living and learning environment in Beijing and find a sense of belonging. Talking about life, "the most simple and simple way is to 'cook' with their friends." Talking about their studies, "We organized the 'Dean Talk' activity, and invited Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan students to participate in the field, so that they could better understand the construction of the school management curriculum."
In recent years, Beijing Dance Academy has built a "new platform" for students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan with the aim of educating people through culture. In the Mid-Autumn Festival last year, the Creative College of Beijing Dance Academy created the "Full Moon" of the teaching practice of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan students, with the theme of "Peering in the Same Direction, Same Root and Same Origin", 11 Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan students from different majors and different ages used dance forms to express the deep thinking of Yanhuang's descendants of "tracing the roots" and their attachment to the "roots" and "soul". Li Yuan found in her work that "the students have a strong sense of national identity."
Xu Rongyu went to Beijing in the winter of 2008 and was impressed by the "red wall and white snow" after the snow, and 14 years later she stood on the stage of the Bird's Nest, and the international atmosphere came to her face, she said: "The Chinese people are more confident."
She chose to come to Beijing to study, an important reason is that she likes traditional Chinese culture, is quite interested in ethnic folk dance, "the soft beauty of Chinese dance has a charm, thousands of turns and even fingertips are gentle", Xu Rongyu calculated well, next semester to apply for a Chinese dance elective course.
Wang Yuanyuan said that the concept of "building a snowflake" is very well understood by young people on both sides of the strait.
Xu Rongyu wrote in his diary, "We danced snowflakes on the field, and there were snowflakes floating in the sky. Countless snowflakes in the spotlight like the Milky Way sprinkled on the world, falling on our snowflakes, intertwined with our enthusiasm, warmed the winter nest, but also lit up our hearts. May this fire not only warm the bird's nest, not only light up you and me, but also ignite the future Chinese dream! ”
Source: China Youth Daily client