Description: It’s been a year since my daughter went to the Beijing Modern Dance Company for dance lessons. I followed her and was gradually attracted to the dance company. By now, every time the kids go in for a class, a few of us parents will sit together and chat about modern dance, education, and our views on life. There was a lot of empathy. Mr. Tsutsuko said that the Beijing Modern Dance Company is a dojo, and I deeply believe that. I think that those of us who come to BDC are probably attracted by the atmosphere of this dojo. It is precisely because it is a dojo, not a commercialized, standardized art training institution, that it gives a lot of energy to the children and to the parents. I am very thankful for this year’s harvest and always want to write something, so I have the following record. The text is my personal opinion, the text is responsible for their own. The writing is not thoughtful, well, just not thoughtful. Haha.
The music started and in the spirit of the drink I twisted a few times in front of the standing mirror. For a few seconds it was comfortable. Muscles, bones, nerves, center of gravity, take-ups and downs, emotions were all at ease, and the person was inside the music. Then I heard my daughter say next to me, “Dad, I think you’re getting a little bit of a feel for modern dance.
I couldn’t figure out how she perceived it. Can my body communicate it clearly and accurately when I am at ease with myself? I don’t know. But I’m starting to believe that my daughter, who says she loves dance from the bottom of her heart and has been learning modern dance for almost a year, gets this stuff. Even if she is only 7 years old.
enroll
My daughter initially wanted to learn street dance. She was less than 6 years old at that time. We went to a street dance junior training studio introduced by a friend. My own attitude towards this kind of training is not to encourage or oppose. In the past, when I went shopping and looked at the parents sitting in front of the training class on the third floor of the shopping mall, I would be psychologically repulsed. On the scene of the street dance class, the person in charge was praising the children’s talent to my wife. The teacher was doing drills with a few kids 1, 2, 3, 4, and I was hiding by the window playing with my cell phone.
The young female assistant who came in and out had a smile on her face and was willing to cheer up the kids from the bottom of her heart. I thought to myself, she’s good, she’s a good salesperson.
The daughter didn’t fancy the place either. Things were put on hold.
Actually, my family’s life is quite close to music. We live in a relatively artsy village. On weekends when the weather is nice, the routine for city people is to run to the park with the kids and the shovels for digging in the sand. Our routine here is to set up a grill in the yard and grab the African drums, guitars, and balls for the kids to play with. We have a small band, but I’m one of the ones dragging my feet, playing along with the instruments, and the rhythm is never on point. Well, actually out of tune the vast majority of the time too. I analyzed it myself. I was in marching band when I was a kid, and it hurt. When I picked up my instrument, all I could think of were those marches, Radetzky, Old Marching Order, Under the Flag of Two Eagles, and so on. In the marching band, we played instruments while walking in formation, changing formations, and even went to training, living in a group home, which was similar to military training. And then I had a shadow on group activities. When I saw the clubs recruiting in college, I avoided them. The root of the disease has also fallen, pick up the instrument, the brain is full of marching song routine, do rei mi sol ra. these two years better, I cooperate with some decorative notes, long notes, short notes as the background.
Before the epidemic, there was a small music bar in the village, run by Old Zhang, a jazz player. Old Zhang didn’t say much and was extremely kind. I remember one time he played with us with an electric guitar, I played African drums on stage, Lao Zong played bass, that time Lao Zhang casually plucked a few times, I couldn’t help but follow the beat, the music felt very comfortable, where all right. To be honest, I’ve tried listening to jazz shows a few times before, and I was completely bored. This time following along was pleasurable as hell, like I had just gotten out of a hot springs bath, giddy and slightly drunk. As much dopamine and endopeptide as you want. If I came every other day, I wouldn’t have any anxiety.
One time my daughter did the same thing and stood in front of the microphone and ummed and ahhed and improvised, she was 3 years old at the time. I don’t know what she sang, but I cherish that moment. After all, this kind of life experience Shichahai, Sanlitun is unlikely to have.
I myself wanted my daughter to learn drums from my neighbor Lao Zong, but she didn’t catch on. The village teacher, Mr. Zhang, is learning piano, but she doesn’t like it. If she doesn’t like it, she doesn’t like it. I don’t want to force her. A happy childhood is probably the rarest of all. I don’t want to force her to go to Harvard.
Last spring and summer, Lara introduced me to a modern dance performance, The Great Wall, by the Beijing Modern Dance Company. When I heard the name, I thought it was a nationalistic, ideologically oriented show, so I didn’t go. My wife took my daughter to the show, and she came back saying that it was not what I thought it would be, and she said so several times. Then later Beijing Modern Dance Company opened a children’s dance class, his wife said to take his daughter to see. I didn’t go. Back to the two of them are quite high, intend to go. I heard them say, the flavor is quite correct, and general training courses are not like the same thing. I went online and searched for the introduction and quotes of the person in charge, Ms. Takayanatsuko. After reading a few paragraphs I supported Tinkerbell to go. Some things are just pretty simple, and the fact that the artist expresses them accurately means that they have thought it through, and when they have thought it through, things are going in the right direction.
This dance class is to follow the real artist to mix, not to do exercises, not the examination level. But at the time, I was still thinking about fulfilling my daughter’s hobby, and I didn’t think about whether or not it was valid for my child to take modern dance. I’m sure Ms. Tsutsuko will understand that. We did discuss it later, and what she said was great. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was benefiting from my daughter’s classes. One day I’ll get involved and dance all night.
torrent
Because of my body and mind, I spent the last year recuperating at home. So the task of taking the kids to class fell more on me. Every week on Saturdays, when I arrived, my child danced with the teacher. Parents sit in the chairs next to them. I usually hide outside the rehearsal hall. For one thing, I want to be by myself for a while, and for another, I think the teacher’s lesson requires the child’s attention to be focused on him or her. Parents are a distraction if they don’t even talk to each other. But then my perception gradually changed. Probably because these teachers are dancers first and foremost, and performing on stage is their specialty. They are not afraid of being mobbed.
My daughter danced and I read by myself. The parents who accompanied me included an old colleague, poet Lao Ye, and Mr. Liu. In the dark, the three of them were chatting by moonlight outside the dance troupe. At that time, I even smoked cigarettes with them.
There was a long table in the dance company’s council chamber that had to be about ten meters long. There were two classes that were not held in the rehearsal hall, but were arranged here at the table. The children sat on either side of the table, with their parents sitting against the wall behind them. Ms. Tsutsuko asked the children what you thought the original dance was like. One by one, the children stood up and said how they felt, and then went to the table to improvise a dance to the music.
Some say the dance is the wind, some say the dance is the clouds, my daughter and a few of the children say the dance is freedom. The children climbed onto the table and danced their limbs to the music that rose and fell slowly like the accompaniment tape of a witchcraft ritual, carving with their bodies the gestures of the ancient dance in their minds. Tsuko echoed them from the sidelines, saying from time to time that it was very good, yes, it was great, now the wind is coming, a little more wind, yes. Parents watched from the sidelines, videotaping with their cell phones. It’s amazing to me that these kids who haven’t had a few lessons dance with such determination, without a hint of hesitation, squirming, it’s cool. They’re not like me, whose brain goes down while improvising along with the band.
After talking to Tsutsuko more, I got to know a little bit about her concept of dance. That system is very oriental, and to be honest it’s not quite the same as the concept of modern dance that I had imagined. But she also emphasized over and over again that the difference between modern dance and other dances is that modern dance is dance with reflection.
This is so true, fantastic. From my perspective, I expect modern dance to bring reflection to my daughter. I expect her to become more aware of herself by stretching and dancing her body in front of a wall of mirrors day after day. I don’t know what kind of world they face when they grow up, but I hope that this love from the body can be a solid source of strength for her. When things go wrong, at least there will be an outlet to digest her emotions and self-pleasure.
Now there’s another one to add to the list, and it also strengthens the body. My wife has said that there is a marked difference between my daughter now and before she joined the troupe. My daughter is no less rewarding in the dance company than she was in school.
competition (sports etc)
Ms. Tsutsuko is the one who can’t be bothered. After the children had taken some lessons, she arranged for them to follow the dance troupe on stage, and called a meeting with the parents to assign jobs. At that time, I thought to myself, “That’s good. If my daughter wants to go, she can go. If she doesn’t want to, she won’t go. There are some things I don’t understand, but I believe in Tsunko’s professionalism in artistic practice.
A couple times when the kids were in class, Tsumiko pulled the parents into her office. We all sat in a circle and clapped our hands, legs, shoulders, each other and whatnot to the music. Strictly speaking that was my first experience with modern dance, and it was kind of fun.
The deeper change came in the fall. My daughter’s classes became twice a week. And there was a competition for a cultural program around the Winter Olympics. At that point my daughter kept talking to the neighborhood kids about how she was going to the Olympics, and I would remind her that Olympic competitions were a different story. In my heart of hearts, and really don’t want these competitions to bother her.
The track they danced to was “Beijing Welcomes You”. This song, written in 2008, used to be a major cliché in my eyes, far worse than Little Apple. But re-watching the song this time, it kind of dawned on me. The lyrics of this song are a collaboration between the mainland and Hong Kong. The lyrics are the work of famous Hong Kong musician Lin Xi, and they are straightforwardly about the two themes of the same world and the same dream. I think this is probably the most sincere and profound expression of Hong Kong to China in the past 40 years, and one that everyone can accept and be satisfied with. The author of the song is Xiao Ke, a famous musician in mainland China. A notable feature of the lyrics and the song is the repetition, like the kind of hymns sung in churches, constantly chanting hallelujah, hallelujah. The function of that kind of song is not to be delicate, not to have a thousand turns, not even to talk about poetry, but to repeatedly set the atmosphere so that all people can accept it, immerse themselves in it, and appear to have a sense of ritual.
The preliminary round was on Beijing Radio, and the rematch was somewhere near Beijing Radio, along Chang’an Street anyway. Moments before the competition, the teachers of the dance troupe were still snapping details for the kids, hairstyles, movements, positions, make-up, etc.. Of course I’ve seen teachers from other competing groups doing this as well.
I’ve never seen anything like it before. What shocked me most was a large Chinese classical dance rehearsal. The teacher was sitting in the middle of the waiting hall, and 20 or 30 children were rehearsing in front of the teacher, terrified of making mistakes. Parents sat in a corner. They smile when the teacher smiles. They don’t say anything when the teacher is mean. “I told you to come here, why don’t you come here” the teacher says to one of the students. The girl who was being mean didn’t say anything and didn’t want to come over. The two were at a standstill for a little while. The girl finally gave in.
I was surprised by the dedication of Tsutsuko and the company to the competition. As I watched the rehearsals, I sometimes wondered what Tsutsuko and the professional dancers in the company were doing putting so much effort into this event. Given their journeyman status and business skills, this event is not exactly cost-effective. Even if there was an epidemic, it wasn’t. Those young dancers, in particular, are in the best years of their physical condition. If there was no epidemic, they would be in Europe, in New York, in Tokyo, in places around the world where modern dance is more active and mainstream to showcase their talents. After all, youth is short.
For this performance, Tsuko led the team to choreograph their dances, trained all night long, and found a professional recording studio to record the accompanying music. The dubbing was actually done by vocalist Ms. Zhao Li. To a large extent, I supported Tinker Bell’s participation because of the commitment of Tsumiko and the troupe. Of course, the premise was that Tinkerbell herself wanted to participate.
This is how I understood it later, this event for my daughter was equal to experiencing a training and performance with her buddies, which was the first step for them kids to form a children’s modern dance troupe. Because of this competition, the children’s rehearsals came up in density, from twice a week to multiple times a week. The children’s connection is much tighter during the training and the competition. The accompanying parents get involved and become part of the team. In this sense, it doesn’t matter so much what the specific performance or competition is. The process is one of forging a small modern dance children’s company.
Without the rehearsals for this show, the later performance, Bloom, would not have taken shape.
These kids are about the same age, what will it be like when they keep dancing? I’m sure parents who saw the show wondered. By the time Bloom was performed, many people actually had the answer in their minds. This is because people saw the performance of the Junior Group. If the children in the children’s group were not yet able to show the charm of modern dance because of their physical and mental conditions, the performance of the Junior Group was just shocking.
come to realize
One night, Tsuko dragged me, Mr. and Mrs. Lao Ye, and Ms. Liu to run to another rehearsal hall, where she was going to lead us in a dance. It started because she wanted to arrange something for the parents. I was thinking about that at the time, and I had brought a baseball to throw around in the dance troupe yard with Little Gogo’s dad, Lao Cheng. Tsuko said we could pull the parents together for a modern dance. My reaction was, isn’t that exercise enough.
As it turns out, I was wrong again. That night we followed Tsuko as she did her moves against a wall of mirrors. The ladies didn’t understand, but anyway, the three men were all over forty years old. It was only after Lao Ye’s reminder that I realized that, oh, my daughter was exerting so much physical energy in each class. This was also the first time I looked at myself in the mirror for a long time to do the movements. Later, I read that the rise of modern dance is partly credited to its athletic attributes.
It’s not like I haven’t reflected on dance. I’ve been to India a couple times before for work, and have pondered and watched a bunch of Indian song and dance movies. Went there more often and liked it.
There is a movie video, Chaiyya Chaiyya, shot on top of a train traveling in the mountains. The lyrics, music, dance and scenery are excellent. The lyrics are from ancient Sufi poets and the song has won a Grammy. I’ve been recommending this music video for a while now, and I say look at them Indians, they can dance with their cheeks. We can’t. Another time, I asked a girl who teaches dance in Zimbabwe to take our kids dancing. She said that when she was a child at home, during festivals, her father would lead a team and her mother would lead a team, and they would dance in pairs. I sometimes use this incident as an example to criticize the lack of dancing ability of ordinary Chinese people.
But yeah, hey, I’m just paying lip service. For me, this whole thing about Chinese people not being good dancers belongs to a cultural phenomenon that needs to be reflected upon, criticized and examined. It belongs to a certain type of knowledge that I’m processing in my head. It never occurred to me to say to myself, since you think dancing is pretty important, go ahead and dance, move.
My work used to be characterized by absorbing what I saw, heard, and felt into my head, thinking about them, and then putting them into words and writing them according to certain rules of logic or narrative. One of the most important things here is to be a dispassionate onlooker. So, once I became interested in modern dance under the influence of the company, my approach was to find videos to watch, and then look up Wikipedia, and look up Grandmaster Duncan’s books. When I had questions, I would then talk to Ms. Tsutsuko.
I’m always trying to make sense of the modern dance ethos. Why did it happen and how did it evolve. What is the relationship between modern dance and education, blabla… In short, I like to deduce those because and so. When I actually went to see the Beijing Modern Dance Company’s performance of “Three Nights of Rain – Wish”, my brain couldn’t keep up with the rhythm, and I fell asleep in the middle of the piece.
That said, I was not sleeping well during that time and watching modern dance performances was a great sleep aid.
overnight
On the New Year’s Eve, Tsumiko found a venue in the valley of the western mountains for an event with her dance troupe. At first she wanted to dance for three days and three nights and asked if we would follow. According to her, she once danced for four days, day and night. I hadn’t even thought of such a thing, but it did tickle my fancy a bit. Then the event was changed to an overnight almost 10-hour dance, from 9:30 p.m. to sunrise in the morning, which was about 7:30 a.m.
Thanks to Lao Cheng, if he hadn’t dragged me to the all-night dance event, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have had the courage to do it myself. When I first saw the show, I listened to Lao Cheng’s comments and they were very professional. As a director, it was interesting for him to share with us his findings from observing how Jinzi led the actors in rehearsal dances. My wife also supported me to go. What would I have danced like on my own? I don’t know.
The crossover performance began with an improvisation by the dancers. Some of those dancers were daughters their teachers. The scene of their performance was stunning. I could see them echoing each other, one movement coming and one movement going. That kind of shock really needs to be seen live to be felt, and can’t be described in words or conveyed through the medium of video. Take for example the impromptu dance between a dancer and a ladder. In my eyes, the ladder was redefined twice, completely reversing my perception of ladders. The dancer redefined her and the artifact through her body and actions. So she also subverts my perception of the body.
So I got to thinking again about what kind of understanding these dancers have with each other when they come together to create such a magical performance. The relationship between Beijing Modern Dance Company and them is like a magical melting pot, where the dancers are thrown in like one of those dispensaries that magic requires, and under the stirring of the music, they act on each other and have a chemical reaction. They don’t need to think about modern perceptions of individuality like free will ego and other ego. The dancers flow freely through the self and the other, breaking boundaries and shaping them, connecting, disintegrating. Gathering together, then scattering and separating. In the words of Tsutsuko, Beijing Modern Dance Company is a dojo.
Dancing with these dancers was one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever done in my life. And, of course, the old Ching. The stiffness and awkwardness of both of us should have been uncontrollably apparent in our limbs and expressions. Mine was definitely worse, so much so that some of the other dancers would come over and tell me to take it easy. I was 100% convinced I was naked in their eyes. They could see right through me when I raised my shoulders. It was horrible, so socially dead.
Doesn’t matter, I’ll give you an embarrassing example. A trainee of the opposite sex saw that I was nervous and came over and said it was a game and led me in a dance. I tried hard for a few seconds and my head and body stiffened together. Why do I have to do this, why do I have to turn around and spin around? Why can’t this thing be analyzed like a math problem, like a because and so? Intuition, ah, intuition, I have no intuition. Is it too late to go read up on cognitive psychology? Within two minutes I was defeated and told her I had to go down for a drink. What a wimp.
Tsuko says to imagine yourself as dust, the freest dust. To be honest, I didn’t do it, nor did I seek to do it. After all, the body has been shackled for so long that the shell is hard. I danced to the light on the wall, to the floor, to the other dancers around me. Constantly switching methods trying to find a thread to pull my body out of its shell. I should have had a drink first, or made myself more fatigued, shouldn’t have been too sober, too clear.
In any case, it was a beginning, perhaps a beginning that I should have done long ago, but never did. It was my first close encounter with modern dance. I wanted to know my body a little bit better, to treat it a little bit better. I wanted to really dance to the music without using my head and only my heart. So I went, I wanted to let loose and go crazy. If I didn’t, at least I wanted to do a little bit of that, keep dancing, don’t stop. I wanted to learn to speak with my body, not with words. Later Tsunko told a story about how she and her mother danced together and spoke through dance, and I envied that.
blossom
Bloom is an event close to a formal performance. Professional dancers from the Beijing Modern Dance Company, children’s classes, and youth classes perform together in the theater. There were formal lights, choreography, costumes, and a program. Right, the program book should be collected, it’s quite memorable.
In retrospect, it is quite amazing that this was done. I am afraid that in other organizations, this would not have been possible.
During the first week of the show, there were two days of continuous rehearsals, each day lasting four or five hours. The children came to rehearse after school, practiced until 9 or 10 o’clock at night, then went home to sleep and went to school the next morning. Some parents have made comments on the spot, and although I don’t agree with them, my feelings are understandable; each family has its own trade-offs. Tsuko is tough and calms the scene at critical moments.
I think the pressure is all on her to take care of the parents and to have the actors’ support. To be the general director in charge of the rehearsals, to contact and arrange the performance venues. And what exactly does one gain by doing this? During the performance, the dancers in the company also each said something. One of the dancers said that dance education is something you can do for the rest of your life, independent of your physical condition. If he meant it, I think it could be heartening. In a sense, they are some of the best dancers in the land, and there has to be a reason for them to spend their time performing with their children.
My wife was assigned the task of helping backstage. She was working late during rehearsals, and I filled in for her to preview how to help the little girls with their costumes and props. Actually, I kind of like doing this job. And the kids I manage are pretty cute. And to be honest I wanted my wife to be there to see the show. Especially the Juniors. By the time the official show rolled around, she still gave me the opportunity.
Even after a rehearsal in the rehearsal hall, I didn’t think it could be awesome live to a level equivalent to being able to perform in public. A few parents got together later and talked about how they felt about the show. Ms. Xu found the choreography process interesting, with the older kids leading the younger ones and devising the dance moves on their own. Others, like me, were electrified by the teenagers’ performance. During the performance, the teenagers wore white shirts and unfolded their bodies to the music. I couldn’t tell what they were expressing, but I could feel the beauty of youth and the intensity and brightness of life. I couldn’t help but take a few pictures of the play and send them to my friends with the line, “Flowers have a new day, people are no longer teenagers. I guess the feelings of those who swiped to the friend circle will be much weaker. Even at the moment, I don’t know how to describe that feeling in words.
When I talked to a few parents of children in the children’s group later, they all said that during rehearsals there were parents who didn’t understand why they had to participate in the show. But after watching the show, they all thought how great it would be if their children could dance like the Junior Group in the future.
At the end of the show, Tsumiko asks a couple of her celebrity friends to get up and hold the stage. Yao Chen made a good point when she said that when she was a teenager learning to dance, their teacher asked them to laugh because that dance demanded laughter. But modern dance allows for the expression of one’s true self. She also said it’s unfortunate that people nowadays don’t pay as much attention to their bodies.
The most shocking thing to me was Father. My mother came back to life at the beginning of the year. Then I brought my father to see this show, which my granddaughter had participated in, as a kind of consolation. At the show, my father raised his hand and said that he couldn’t be born again after seeing the show.
I actually wanted to tell him that you can dance now too.
dancers
A few days ago, I ran to the dance company with Sister Xu to watch a day of rehearsal exclusively. In the morning was “Water – Question” and in the afternoon was “Zodiac”. For North Present, these repertoire shows are the specialty and the core value of the company. I sometimes wonder if North Present would have the energy to do modern dance education if not for the epidemic.
I entered the rehearsal hall just in time to catch Water-Question towards the end. The atmosphere was subdued, with dancers tearing through plastic bags and the noise of electronics creating tension. But gradually, the dancers retreated, the field emptied, and the dancer Jiaxin slowly walked out from the back of the stage forward alone, her expression solemn, her hands changing hand seals, and the sound of the Buddha flooded the room. At that moment I saw the dancer manifesting the face of God.
Thereupon a large number of dancers entered the rehearsal space, each in a dharma form. Ms. Tsutsuko sidelong glanced at Sister Hsu and me and told us that she had used the form of the Joyful Buddha here. I wondered then if the stone, wood, and metal idols I had seen before were themselves moments in the dance. Perhaps those so-called hand seals were not meant to be fixed, but to flow slowly as the dancers displayed.
Watching them rehearse throughout the day, the more I realize that dancers are magical beings. Dancers use their physical activity on stage as the centerpiece, with music and lighting to convey emotions and feelings, and sometimes positions, to the audience. This kind of transmission is inevitably ineffable, and must be transmitted in the form of dance. I, on the other hand, watched them and their bodies from the sidelines. For me, they were bodies from another world, as if I had to abandon the intellectual value of so-called free will in order to recognize them, to understand them. Sometimes I began to drift off and saw the dancers gathered together, nestled together, in a renewed demonstration of the possibilities of human relationships on earth. It was a possibility I had already never realized. I don’t know why I think of the Avatar, of the divine tree on that planet.
I think what makes modern dance dancers special is that they are aware of and use their bodies in a way that is far beyond the norm. They can use their bodies to speak to people, and those words are also an irreplaceable reality. I even feel that that may be the most real. Just like “Water-Question”, that is also a kind of response to the world’s problems, an answer given by the dancers.
Modern dance adheres to the principle that everyone can dance. However, realistically speaking, modern dance is still a cultural phenomenon that is on the niche side today. Takayanzuko says that everyone is a dancer, you just forget it when you grow up. I think this forgetting is, in a way, the inevitable result of modern society.
In the present time, people are relying more on their brains, on knowledge and machines in their daily activities. People are becoming less aware of their bodies. But this is not the case with children. The child has not yet completed the modern systematic domestication of education, and retains more innocence, retains the original factory settings of the human being. Perhaps it is in this sense that dancers and children connect more easily.
And because of this, dancers can plant seeds in a child’s mind and their love for their body. I am 100% convinced that children are facing a future that is much more standardized and data-driven. Machines can help them solve most of the problems of daily life and labor. And therein lies my fear, my fear that my children will become tools, that they will forget about their bodies and the existence of compassion and empathy. This is why I want my daughter to be closer to dancers.
If everything were reversed, I believe the dancer knows another answer to life. An answer that is not necessarily less important than what philosophers know.
(Original text reprinted from Beijing Modern Dance Company public number)
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