On July 27, 2008, there were 12 days left before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Zhang Yimou also planned the program on the spot, and strived to make the opening ceremony successful without mistakes.
Who knows, an accident crept in.
During the rehearsal process of the dance "Silk Road", Liu Yan, as the protagonist, caused a serious accident due to the 1-second operation error of the staff, and Liu Yan also changed the fate of his life.
Unexpectedly, this seemingly insignificant 1 second made Zhang Yimou feel guilty all his life.
As the saying goes: where there is a cause, there must be an effect.
01
Liu Yan was born in 1982 to a generous family in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, the son of a judge and a doctor to a mother.
Rock, this word is the name of the grandparents, is to hope that Liu Yan can be as strong as mountains and stones.
It is precisely because their parents are highly educated people, in education, naturally they are also very concerned and cultivated for Liu Yan.
When he was 3 years old, he was sent to study dance.
Originally, this was just to increase Liu Yan's literature and art, but I did not expect that this jump had changed his life.
You know, according to the script, she would go down the path of her father or mother, but in fact, she fell in love with dance.
When she stood on the stage, fate secretly marked the gift.
After a period of study, the teacher also found that he had a slender figure at a young age, was a natural dancer, and as long as he was well trained and trained, he would surely become a dazzling new star in the dance world.
The praise for the teacher also made her very diligent and hardworking, although the teacher said that she was a natural dancer, she still felt that she was not as smart as others and needed to work hard continuously.
To this end, this talented and hard-working little girl became a good dancer.
At the age of 9, she was selected into the Inner Mongolia Song and Dance Troupe because of her excellent dance, and Bai Ying became her teacher.
Under the cultivation of teacher Bai Ying, she clearly realized the dance, after a systematic and professional training, Liu Yan improved very quickly.
The following year, her teacher Bai Ying suggested that she go to the Beijing Dance Academy Affiliated High School.
Sure enough, the excellent Liu Yan successfully got the admission letter and officially advanced to the door of dance.
Unfortunately, at the age of 10, she had to leave her parents' arms and leave her hometown for Beijing.
After studying dance in Beijing, she also became a powerful dancer.
You know, 6 years in the attached middle school, 4 years in the Beijing Dance Academy, the whole 10 years have been immersed in dance.
She herself has a high talent for dancing, and in the eyes of her classmates and teachers, she is also the hardest working student.
At that time, she also participated in many dance competitions, and she worked hard and was talented, but in each competition, she won the second place.
For this ranking, many students have jokingly said that she is a "second-prize professional household".
To this end, she practiced the dance harder, hoping to be on the stage every minute.
Liu Yan's success is inevitable.
Whenever she recalls this time of practicing dance, Liu Yan is very happy, she said:
"To this day, I miss the simple, pure days."
02
In 2004, in the national dance competition held by CCTV, Liu Yan successfully won the gold medal with a dance of "Rouge Buckle".
On the stage, Liu Yan had amazing dance and art, which detonated the whole audience, and even the judges and teachers were very impressed.
I have to say that being able to win awards and praise in a competition like CCTV is undoubtedly Liu Yan's strength.
In the next step, Liu Yan slowly became a dancer, relying on that beautiful dance posture, and was also called "classical dance queen".
In 2006, on the spring evening of CCTV, Liu Yan also stood on this stage and danced "Three Friends of the Cold Years" with Yang Liping and Tan Yuanyuan.
Being able to compete with Yang Liping and Tan Yuanyuan, it is conceivable that Liu Yan has reached the peak of the dance world.
In their respective fields, they are all outstanding dancers.
The success of the Spring Festival Gala debut also greatly increased Liu Yan's fame.
But along with it came not only fame and prestige, but also inexplicable gossip.
An intimate photo with Lang Kun, the director of the Spring Festival Gala, immediately pushed Liu Yan to the cusp of the storm.
You know, at that time, Lang Kun was a man with a family, wife and children, and even rumors about it, and the public opinion can be imagined.
Because of this scandal, Liu Yan was also inexplicably labeled as a "virtual being".
Perhaps there are some misunderstandings in this, but Lang Kun and his wife Ma Yanli divorced, and the reason for the divorce, Ma Yanli also said that there was a third party intervention.
Although Ma Yanli did not name names, she undoubtedly pointed the spearhead at Liu Yan.
Although the outside world has said a lot about it, Liu Yan has no influence at all, and still releases himself on the dance stage.
Some people may say that they have been on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and they have already achieved fame.
But Liu Yan still did not dare to slacken off, desperately running on the road of dance.
In a short period of time, she has won countless dance awards, performed in various countries, and passed on her dance to the world.
Not only that, Liu Yan's dance is also quite legendary, in a Spring Festival Gala rehearsal dance, she also asked the director to stop, saying that let them all not move, the director is also a face of blindfolding.
Because it is a group dance, the mixing and dancing of the personnel are very complicated, although it looks gorgeous and shocking, but in fact there is no beauty at all.
Group dance is not only an individual to reflect, but more importantly, a group, and in this dance, the protagonist is not reflected at all, just like in the "group of demons dancing".
Immediately after, Liu Yan relied on his rich experience to help them redesign the group dance.
After that, the effect is very remarkable.
03
In her dance career, in the early stages, she was laying the foundation and tempering herself, even if she failed to become famous and honorable, she has been silently insisting.
The persistence of silence was the most difficult, but Liu Yan did it.
It is precisely because of this that her success is inevitable.
In the dance world, Liu Yan is like a bright pearl, and her fame has naturally received attention from many parties, including Zhang Yimou.
In 2008, the arrival of the Beijing Olympic Games can be said to have aroused the attention of the whole country, and Zhang Yimou, who became the director of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, was also actively preparing for the battle.
In order to be able to feel the charm of China in the world, Zhang Yimou also racked his brains, and he thought of Liu Yan, who was radiant on the stage.
Zhang Yimou personally found Liu Yan and invited her to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and perform a solo dance "Silk Road".
"Silk Road" is a short dance, only 1 minute and 37 seconds.
Although the time is very short, for Liu Yan, he takes it very seriously, often working overtime to practice, and this practice is a whole half year.
For more than half a year, she has been practicing a short dance of 1 minute and 37 seconds, or who will be tired of it, but Liu Yan has persevered, which is enough to prove her excellence.
During the continuous practice, Zhang Yimou also told Liu Yan that the stage of the Olympic Games is the most exciting and brightest stage in the world, and your dance will light up the whole world.
Although it has not yet begun, Liu Yan is full of longing.
In fact, even if Zhang Yimou did not say such a thing, Liu Yan himself knew that this was a rare opportunity, and after so many years of suffering, he finally waited for an opportunity.
In the dance world, some people have also passed on Liu Yan into a myth, and she will surely be famous for eternity.
But no one could have imagined that she would become a lucky person, and a bad news suddenly came to her, completely changing her fate.
On July 27, the opening ceremony was only 12 days away.
Zhang Yimou is also grasping the rehearsal, and has put his whole heart on one program after another to ensure the perfection of the opening ceremony.
Under his strictness, the show is indeed very watchable, but he did not expect that because of the mistake of 1 second, it would make a genius in the dance world change his life.
That night, I saw Liu Yan like a dancing fairy, dancing a three-meter-long ribbon, releasing his beautiful dance posture on the scroll.
Halfway through, she also jumped on the float and continued to dance.
It was also this stage that caused it to have an accident.
Because of the operation error of the staff, starting a second in advance, Liu Yan stepped on the float with one foot, and one foot did not land on the ground, due to inertia, Liu Yan leaned back, resulting in a fierce fall off the 3-meter stage.
For a moment, the scene became very quiet, and tens of thousands of people stopped and looked at Liu Yan.
Because of the pain, Liu Yan fell into a coma.
04
After 6 hours of emergency treatment in the hospital, Liu Yan saved his life, but ushered in an unfortunate result: high paralysis.
This year, she was only 26 years old, the best years of a dancer, but she was about to say goodbye to the stage, so she rewrote her ending.
Not long after, she woke up, surrounded by people, and her parents were also there.
And her first words were: Will I still go to the bird's nest tomorrow at five o'clock to rehearse?
When the words fell, many people couldn't help but shed tears.
After waking up, she did not care about herself for the first time, but about dance, and in her concept of life, dance may be more important than life.
Seeing that her relatives and friends around her were crying, she seemed to find something bad.
She felt her legs out of control.
She asked the people around her about the situation, but no one dared to tell her the cruel truth, just silently shed tears on the side.
The expressions and emotions of the crowd made Liu Yan understand.
As a dancer, legs are life, and lying on the hospital bed, she fell into confusion, even she herself did not dare to face the facts, this blow can be imagined.
This time, not just missing an Olympics, it ruined her entire artistic career.
Since she practiced dance, dance is everything in her life, and she has never thought about what she can do except dance, and even during the period of hard perseverance, someone has advised her to change her career, but she has not listened and has always insisted.
After losing the dance, what else can Liu Yan do?
On August 8, 2008, the lights outside the house were brilliant, fireworks were ringing across the country, and everyone was cheering, even in the hospital.
But Liu Yan, who was lying on the hospital bed, stared helplessly at the white ceiling.
She did not dare to look outside the house, and she did not dare to turn on the TV, using only a small speaker, trying to comfort herself with music.
After practicing dance all his life, he struggled for more than half a year, and the brilliance that originally belonged to him passed by.
Unwilling, desperate, sad, heartbroken..........
For a long time when an accident occurred, she did not dare to take the initiative to contact her friends, and her resistance psychology was also very strong, and she was even very taboo about dance-related topics and things.
The operation center of the Olympic Games also has a statement:
Due to the operation error of the platform, the early withdrawal caused the soloist Liu Yan to step on the air and fall from a height of nearly three meters. As a result, Liu Yan was seriously injured and paid an irreparable price for it..."
Irretrievable, these four words hit Liu Yan too hard.
On the fourth day of the Olympic Games, Zhang Yimou came.
Looking at Liu Yan lying on the hospital bed, Zhang Yimou was very guilty and became a pain in his life, if it were not for his invitation and planning, perhaps this accident would not have happened.
In the first page of the general director, Zhang Yimou also wrote a sentence:
"In the opening ceremony, the first person I want to thank is Liu Yan, she gave everything to the opening ceremony, she is a hero!"
05.
No matter how harsh the reality is, in the end, we must go strong.
During the confusion, Liu Yan opened his mobile phone and looked into his eyes, full of friends' phone calls and caring text messages.
The content of the text message is almost always: Liu Yan, we will always be together, I will always be by your side.
Fate was unfair, but she couldn't fall for it.
So she picked herself up again, changed her mindset, and actively cooperated with the treatment.
Because the doctor told her that in a situation like hers, there was a one in ten thousand chance of being able to get back on her feet.
One in ten thousand, this probability is very small, but for Liu Yan, it is also hope.
The first thing to do every day when you get up is rehabilitation.
Fitness, massage.....
For a long time, Liu Yan worked hard to do rehabilitation, but the effect of ushering in it did not seem to be.
And she also asked her mother who accompanied her from time to time: Mom, do you think I can still stand up? Can you still continue to dance on stage?
Without the slightest hesitation, the mother replied: Yes, definitely.
When she said this, the mother's tone was very affirmative, but her eyes did not dare to look at Liu Yan, because she knew that hope could make her daughter have the determination to survive.
However, the passage of time made Liu Yan have to face this cruel fact.
Six months later, she chose to accept reality and applied for an expulsion.
But her mother still hoped that Liu Yan could continue to do rehabilitation training, but Liu Yan said a "no" word.
At that time, she woke up.
Sitting in a wheelchair, she began to master the operation method of her wheelchair, completed everything within her ability, and returned to normal life.
In her life, dance is everything.
Liu Yan, who is sitting in a wheelchair, figured out one thing, who stipulates that the dance should stand on the stage to dance, and she who is in a wheelchair, since she can't stand up, she can also dance in a wheelchair.
Since then, she has begun to practice dancing in a wheelchair.
In 2009, on the stage of the Dance Academy, Liu Yan, who was in a wheelchair, successfully completed a dance called "The Deepest Night and the Brightest Lights".
Her appearance also became the first wheelchair dancer in China.
Regaining her confidence, she also accepted many interviews and reality shows.
In front of the camera, she uses her own experience to encourage more people:
"When I fell off the stage, I experienced the darkest day of my life. Since that day, what I have experienced has gotten better and better, and this is the attitude I have towards life today. ”
"The word strong doesn't seem so simple, it contains a very rich and profound meaning, and I hope to interpret the word for a longer time, or even a lifetime."
06.
In 2010, she set herself a goal to apply for a doctoral degree in dance at the China Academy of Arts.
Perhaps the wheelchair was her biggest problem, but with that tenacious heart, she successfully defeated the problem and was successfully admitted.
Not only that, but she became an orator, inspiring equally unfortunate people and leading them out of despair.
He even became a writer and published a book called "Dance of Hands".
In response to this book, Yang Lan also commented:
"Only the softest hand can unseal the dust of history, and only the most sensitive heart can read the amorousness of dance."
In 2013, with her excellent dance skills, she appeared on the reality TV show "Dancing Forest Battle" and served as a judge for the show.
Teach your unique experience and dance to young dancers.
The following year, she returned to her alma mater, the Beijing Dance Academy, and became a teacher at the academy.
The content of her lectures is: the study of Classical Chinese Dance Dancer Dance.
At the same time, she also set up a "Liu Yan Literature and Art Special Fund", which was established specifically for poor children.
Since then, in Liu Yan's life, there have been more "two legs".
One is dance, the other is public welfare.
Since you can't dance, pass it on and train more dancers.
Perhaps many people feel that Liu Yan can't stand up when he falls here.
But at that time, Liu Yan undoubtedly stood up, and was even more powerful.
With tenacity and hard work, she broke her own inhibitions.
This "winged angel" interprets a new stage with practical actions.
The most admirable thing is that Liu Yan, who is in a wheelchair, is not only a dancer.
There are also directors, writers, teachers, public welfare ambassadors...
All of this was accomplished after Liu Yan's accident.
epilogue:
Looking back at Liu Yan's life, she was undoubtedly reborn from the fire.
Liu Yan, who rubbed shoulders with his dream and re-embarked on another path, did not know whether he had hated Zhang Yimou when he dreamed back in the middle of the night.
Perhaps there will be many difficulties and setbacks in people's lives, but there are very few people who can successfully walk through.
Just like Liu Yan said in "Let's Talk":
"When God closes a door for you, he will open a window for you, and many people say that this has also been fulfilled in me." But I feel for myself that you must have the power to push open that window on your own initiative, rather than waiting for it to open itself. ”