A few days ago, the latest episode of the documentary "My Time and Me 2" was launched - Tan Yuanyuan: the 25th year of a dancer. This episode truly records Tan Yuanyuan's work and life in the past two years, showing her physical and mental state and experience from the forced closure of the dance troupe under the impact of the epidemic to the 2021 dance and music theater "Tan Yuanyuan and Her Friends - Art Museum Fantasy Night" tour project and returning to the stage performance. Along the way, Tan Yuanyuan has always perfectly integrated oriental temperament into the beloved ballet art through love and persistence, allowing us to witness the legendary journey of a professional dancer in the twenty-fifth year, still blooming in the center of the stage. I suddenly realized that last year was Tan Yuanyuan's 25th year of joining the San Francisco Ballet.
01
As long as people talk about ballet, the name of "ballet queen" Tan Yuanyuan will definitely come to mind immediately. In the hearts of Chinese girls without mathematical ballet, the three words "Tan Yuanyuan" are god-like existence.
But few people know that this elegant and graceful "goddess" has also evolved step by step from the ugly duckling. Tan Yuanyuan, who was born in a working family in Shanghai, has been soft and well proportioned since childhood. In 1986, Tan Yuanyuan was admitted to the Shanghai Dance School. Of the more than 1,000 students, only 12 boys and 12 girls were selected. However, her parents quarreled over whether she wanted to enroll in school. The mother once had a dream of becoming a dancer, but it failed to materialize, and she pinned her hopes on her daughter. But in the eyes of Yuan Yuan's father, the dancer's artistic life is too short and cruel, and the girl's home is still safe and stable, and it is better to relax. In the end, the parents decided Tan Yuanyuan's fate with a 5 cent coin. The coin was tossed by her mother, face up, and although she was a year late in school, it eventually put her on the road to dance.
At a young age, she suddenly threw herself from her well-cared for home into a strange and harsh boarding school. Because the basic skills were poor for a year, Tan Yuanyuan, who had just arrived, stood among his classmates and looked particularly eye-catching. For Tan Yuanyuan, when he was a child, he practiced dance, and the most difficult thing was winter. The cold and unheated studio was like an ice cave, and the girls' feet were full of frostbite; in order to ensure that they did not lose their shoes when standing on their toes, they needed to wear dancing shoes smaller than their own foot size when practicing. One day jumped down, the tiptoe shoes can wear out the frostbite, which has not healed, and the next day it will continue to grind... This kind of pain in the heart is that even adults can't eat it, let alone teenage girls. At the age of 14, Tan Yuanyuan participated in the ballet competition held in Shanghai for the first time. Before playing, she was so nervous backstage that her legs were shaking and she "felt that her feet were not her own".
As a result, Tan Yuanyuan's first game was unexpectedly defeated. But it was this failure that made Tan Yuanyuan, who was not willing to accept defeat by nature, inspire endless fighting spirit. She was well aware that the reason for being nervous was because of low self-esteem. Since then, she has no longer cried her nose, but has taken the initiative to practice, and her talent has begun to show under the blessing of diligence. Two years later, Tan Yuanyuan won the gold medal at the International Ballet Competition in Paris, and the world's top ballet master Ulanova praised her as a "girl with full scores".
The defeat at the age of 14 has since become the only game tan yuanyuan has lost in his life.
02
Picking gold from Paris, Tan Yuanyuan officially opened her open life. At the age of 18, he was personally invited by the artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet to become the youngest solo dancer in the whole dance troupe, skipping the steps of apprenticeship and group performance directly. Less than a year later, became chief. You know, this is an honor that an ordinary dancer needs to spend at least 10 years to achieve. When he first came to San Francisco, because of his poor English, Tan Yuanyuan was repeatedly excluded and teased; coupled with the signing and promotion of exceptions, the members of the group did not want to see this Chinese girl.
Once, the rehearsal location was temporarily changed, and no one informed Tan Yuanyuan. She came to the practice room on time, but she did not see anyone else coming. Just when she was wondering, a foreign actor saw her sitting here and unceremoniously asked: "We are all rehearsing opposite, why don't you go?" When Tan Yuanyuan rushed over, he found that his role had been replaced by another girl. Another time, before going on the field, she suddenly found that her hand-sewn dancing shoes had "disappeared". At the San Francisco Ballet, Tan Yuanyuan is not all smooth sailing, but she knows that strength will eventually break the darkness and prejudice. She wants to let everyone know that Chinese girls can still become chiefs.
Time will certainly not fail everyone who is always ready. Once, Tan Yuanyuan was ordered to save a very important performance. The scheduled chief was accidentally injured, and she did not sleep all night, forcing herself to learn a whole difficult and complex dance drama. This rescue made everyone look at it with astonishment. Tan Yuanyuan also went from being an excluded Chinese solo dancer to becoming the most high-profile lead dancer in the whole dance troupe. After the age of 35, she encountered a bottleneck in her career, and once worried that she had passed the golden age, had no drama to jump, and could not grow. But just then, choreographer John Neumere's The Little Mermaid appeared.
In the distance of the sea, the water was so blue and at the same time so clear, like the brightest glass. The little mermaid raised a pair of beautiful, white hands and danced lightly on the floor. Although whenever her feet touch the ground, she is like walking on a fast knife, even if she is closed with four stitches, she must present the audience with the most extreme visual experience, and the real pain makes her merge with the little mermaid. In the end, Tan Yuanyuan's performance of "The Little Mermaid" made John Neumer exclaim: "You jumped out of my soul!"
03
There is light in the heart, and all difficulties can be met. For more than 20 years, Tan Yuanyuan has been moving every day: getting up at eight o'clock, warming up at nine o'clock, going to basic training class at ten o'clock, rehearsing at eleven o'clock, until 6:30 p.m. You can jump up to 5 pairs of shoes a week, and in order to ensure training, you rarely travel. Her life was extremely simple. Stepping down from the stage is often a plain face, do not like to dress themselves, do not like to chase fashion trends.
"I didn't have a childhood, because I went to dance school at the age of 11, and I was training every day, and I said what is the best memory of your childhood?" I said practice room. I just remember the practice room, then sweat, tears, tiptoe shoes, and then blood and water." This is the persistence of a dancer, and behind this persistence is the practice and perseverance of the monks for decades. Behind the ultimate beauty is self-discipline like an ascetic. This seems to be the key to success. In fact, if you think about it, there are only a few truths in the world, but only a few can really do it. This world will never fail to live up to extremely self-disciplined people.
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