Yu Jinying smiled a little shyly, perhaps because he had been at the beach for a long time, he was a little tanned. Returning from Beijing to Donghai Island in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, the big boy returns to the sea of his hometown.
At the age of 17, Yu Jinying danced a Michael Jackson dance on the stage in the village. This simple stage and the cheers offstage allowed him to find "dreams and egos that were not clear before", and also gave him the courage to walk out of the island. On May 5, 12 years later, he interpreted his new self with dance in front of the old stage on this East China Sea Island.
Shoot down on dance creation.
regression
In 1993, Yu Jinying was born in an ordinary fisherman's family in Shuiyang Village, Donghai Island.
Yu Jinying has a childhood like "ancient puzzle boy", skipping class and fighting. However, after an inadvertent sight of Michael Jackson's dance, the seeds of dance have since sprouted in my heart. He traveled to Zhanjiang Art School, Beijing Modern Music Academy, and after nearly 5 years as a dancer in the well-known dance troupe Tao Body Theater, he founded his own dance company, Eagle Theater.
Yu Jinying takes a selfie.
After walking through more than 30 countries and hundreds of cities, the hometown is always calling Yu Jinying. The life in the big city that was pushed forward made him nostalgic for his hometown; however, the brief reunion with his hometown every year made him feel strange. Hometown and other places, motherhood and freedom, loneliness and self, region and art... He never stopped thinking. There seemed to be a voice telling him to go back to his hometown to find the answer.
In May 2019, Yu Jinying returned to the East China Sea Island after many years of absence. The village's old rammed earthen houses and mud walls evoke childhood memories, and Yu Jinying seems to see how he toddlers in the dirt and stumbles to pursue his dancing dreams.
Creation scene.
He decided to create a dance for his hometown.
For more than 10 years, his family only knew that Yu Jinying danced, but did not know how he danced. Or too far away, or no time, the family said, wait until you go home and dance, we'll see.
"I want my family to understand how I've changed, how I've done things, and re-acquaint myself with what I've done." Yu Jinying said, "It can be said that it can be said to make up for the regrets that I have suppressed in my heart for many years, and to complete what I have always wanted to accomplish." ”
10693 days
The dance arena of more than 4 meters high, 10,693 sculptures and thousands of clay pots, 1 person, 100 minutes of dance, together constitute the work "Home And Dance".
sculpture.
There are 29 floors in the dance scene, just like Yu Jinying's life, one year old and one layer up. Yu Jinying asked his friend Yiwei to take more than 20,000 photos of himself, and selected 10,693 photos from them, and created more than 10,000 sculptures with different shapes through hand-made.
"I came into this world on January 25, 1993, and May 5 this year is exactly 10,693 days. The different sculptures represent not only my every day, but also the years that many people have walked together, representing every day that everyone is different and can no longer be repeated. ”
Creation scene.
Whether it is the clay used for sculptures, clay pots or dance scenes, they are all made in the village. For Yu Jinying, growing up in this land, he used the most primitive way to create a gift for the earth, which contains an ancient and inheritable vitality. In this way, he also hopes, "people can learn a little bit about the past in the future."
Due to the large amount of engineering, the family also followed Yu Jinying to "play with mud" and "engage in art".
His father assisted Yu Jinying in creating together.
In his own deserted open space, Yu Jinying, together with his family and fathers and villagers in the village, hoe grass, loosen the soil, and drive cattle every day in order to let the cattle step on the thick soil. "Most days progress is slow and smooth, sometimes typhoons bring heavy rain, and the open space that has been hard to repair has become a happy pond for ducks." In an article, Yu Jinying wrote. After the successful experiment in the wilderness, Yu Jinying "copied" the dance scene to the stage.
From 1, 2, to 1000, 2000... More and more sculptures are being made, just as more and more partners accompany themselves. A beam of light laid down, and the shadow of the sculpture was projected on the ground, and Yu Jinying saw the traces of life in it.
More than just dance
From conception to dance formation, it took a total of 989 days. After that, Yu Jinying threw herself into dance rehearsals. Rehearsing on the clay-made dance floor, he found that people seemed to come from the soil and eventually returned to the soil.
After every rehearsal, he always had to go back to the small bathhouse by the sea. The cabin had not changed for more than twenty years, and the familiar environment suddenly pulled him back to his youth. "I took a bath here when I was a kid, and now I'm back in this place, but I can't dance at that time, and now I'm taller than the door."
Dance world.
An indescribable feeling lingered in Yu Jinying's heart. If you hadn't seen Michael Jackson, wouldn't you have walked out of this island for the rest of your life? Will I still have these feelings at this moment?
"For me, dance is constantly consuming my life and prolonging my life at the same time. In this life, I don't seem to have done anything else except dance, but through dance, I have shown a lot of things that have nothing to do with dance. ”
The villagers assisted Yu Jinying in building a dance scene.
On May 5, "Home and Dance" was officially staged on The East Sea Island. Yu Jinying set off from the first high platform symbolizing the matrix and traveled on a winding spiral road. Hometown is his starting point and the resting place of his soul, and the 10,693 sculptures shape him now, and also represent the past that can be traced back.
This time, Yu Jinying hopes to bring more than just dance.
"In the previous environment, many old seniors never left, which I think is unfair and regrettable. I am personally very ordinary, but this work, I hope to use this land has never seen before, a form, to encourage all people, especially children, to boldly pursue their dreams, let them know that there are more possibilities. ”
The children were full of curiosity about this work.
These days, there are grandmothers in the village who often chant: "It is all up to you, so that a few of our old people can also see such a 'manipulative' play in the village." A child came around and asked him, how did the dance scene come up? When to dance? Is this some kind of ritual? The children came every other day, but they kept asking the same questions. Yu Jinying was a little surprised, but more than that, he was relieved.
"They're always afraid of missing this thing, and it's already had an impact in the process." Yu Jinying said. Perhaps, these children will be inspired to open up a new and unrestricted path in life.
[Reporter] Lin Lu
【Photo】Photo courtesy of the interviewee Guo Longbi Lin Lu
【Author】 Lin Lu
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client