Warm-up session of the opening ceremony of the Winter Paralympic Games 13 blind children sang two songs to warm their hearts

Source: Beijing Youth Daily

13 blind children sang two songs to warm everyone's hearts

Look up to find the light and smile to the world Swing your oars and shake your body slightly

"Let's swing the oars and the boat pushes away the waves..."

Last night, the Olympic heat wave once again swept the "Bird's Nest", and the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games was held here.

In the warm-up session of the opening ceremony, 13 children from the Beijing School for the Blind Music Light Choir helped each other into the venue and sang "Let's Swing the Oars".

Their clear voices, sweet smiles and confident and upright posture touched everyone.

Subsequently, the Sino-German bilingual song "Riding on the Wings of Song" let the world see the confident, strong and optimistic side of China's disabled children.

Practice standing with a smile

Strive to "find the direction of the light"

The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that the youngest of the 13 blind children is only 7 years old, and the oldest is only 15 years old. Behind their perfect interpretation of these two songs, they have paid more hardships and efforts than ordinary people. "Since training began in December last year, the first difficulty that needs to be overcome is the shape and expression of the children." Ru Tianzi, the school's leading teacher, told the Beiqing Daily reporter that because they could not see, the children had no way to have intuitive feelings about many things, and it was not easy for the children to look up and sing with their chests up.

Ru Tianzi introduced that there is no light, and blind children are used to bowing their heads when singing and talking. Just to get the children to sing with their heads held high, the teachers did not spare any effort. Yu Fang, instructor of the Beijing School for the Blind, said frankly that the children did not know what the upright posture looked like, so the teachers stood up and let the children touch it with their hands and feel it through touch. Subsequently, the children began to train over and over again. "The heels, butt, shoulders and the back of the head should be pressed against the wall." Wang Zheng, a 15-year-old blind child, said that these essentials of "standing on the wall" are all familiar to everyone, and they have to train for about an hour every day. "Every time we go to the 'Bird's Nest' to practice, we tell the children that you are now standing in the 'Bird's Nest', a place where the world is watching, and you can imagine a beam of light shining on you at this moment." Ru Tianzi revealed that among the 13 children, several children have some sense of light, in order to allow them to really feel the feeling of a beam of light on their faces, teachers will use their mobile phones to light in their 45-degree direction, let them look for the direction of light, "The children really lifted their heads after feeling the light." ”

In addition to practicing a straight posture, children also need to practice "laughing". "The hardest part is practicing smiling." Ding Xurong, a 10-and-a-half-year-old child, told the Beiqing Daily reporter that she had no concept of the expression of laughter before, and the smile she imagined was that the corners of her mouth moved slightly, which was different from the smile that ordinary people understood. In order to meet the requirements of the stage, she bit the chopsticks in her mouth and repeatedly practiced how to lift the laughing muscles. Teacher Ru Tianzi mentioned that it is often easy for children over 12 years old to express their smiles, but children under 12 years old will have less standard smiles. Children need to touch the curvature of the corner of the teacher's mouth with their hands and practice smiling by biting the chopsticks. During the training process, the teachers will often joke with the children, tickle the children, and make them laugh naturally. "At this time we will encourage them, and now you smile very beautifully, remember the smile now."

Practice hundreds of times

Chinese-German bilingual singing of "Riding on the Wings of Song"

Before the opening ceremony, the performance program was constantly adjusted. Less than 10 days before the official performance, the school received a notice from the director team that the previously cancelled Sino-German bilingual singing performance of "Riding on the Wings of Singing" was officially included in the hot stage again. Teacher Ru Tianzi revealed to the Beiqing Daily reporter that although this song is not difficult for children and has been practiced before, the second paragraph needs to be sung in German, and "German off" has also been passed. So the teachers disassembled the German version of the song, taught the children to sing, and repeatedly practiced the slow version of the song in German pronunciation. "The children practiced German pronunciation as soon as they had time, 'punched in' in the group every day, and the teacher corrected the pronunciation of any classmate at any time. The children practiced back and forth hundreds of times. Ru Tianzi revealed that although the eyes could not see, the children had very good hearing and worked very hard, and learned it in less than a week.

In addition, less than a week before the official start of the opening ceremony, in order to complement the other programs of the hot stage, the children temporarily added a link to interact with other programs with tambourines. "It's easy for the average child, but it's very difficult for a blind child. Learning rhythm and movement has always been the shortcomings of blind children, so teachers have tried to use scene imagination to let them feel props and movements. Teacher Ru Tianzi mentioned that taking the action of asking the children to raise the tambourine high and swing as an example, the teacher asked the children to imagine that they were a small tree that was trying to grow upwards, all the way to the highest place. The children have reached their ideal state with this feeling.

Overcome physical difficulties

Show the confidence and style of visually impaired children in the best state

The Beiqing Daily reporter also learned that in addition to the difficulties in performance, the children also overcame the physical problems caused by the large performance venue and repeated positioning. The children are young, their eyes are invisible, and they usually need to help each other to walk, but the "Bird's Nest" field is very large, the transition time is short, and they often need to be held by the teachers to run on and off the field. "Once one of our children ran so wet that they didn't cry tired, they just laughed and laughed and cried." Teacher Ru Tianzi revealed that later, the teachers prepared a small cart to drag the children into the scene.

"The lyrics of the two songs sung by the children are very warm, which warms the hearts of the children and warms everyone at the same time." After seeing the completion of the children's performance, Teacher Ru Tianzi said excitedly that the children performed very well, and they used their own efforts to show the world the confidence and style of Chinese visually impaired children. "Every time I practice, I think that standing in the 'Bird's Nest' and performing, the whole world can see me, I must show the best state, must show the best spirit of our Chinese children." 」 Ding Xurong said.

Article/Reporter Wu Wenjuan

Photo / Reporter Guo Qian