Life and Leisure

Show-stopper

By Liu Xiangrui (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-09 07:56

Yao Qifeng enjoys her parents' company as she practices ballet. "The streetlights are my stage lights and the passers-by, my audience," she says. Photos by Zhu Jianguo / for China Daily

A poor 10-year-old girl has made a public square in Chengdu her ballet space, stopping passers-by in their tracks with her astonishing skills. Liu Xiangrui reports

On a square in front of Daci Temple in Chengdu, Sichuan province, a girl pirouettes and twirls under a dim streetlight, oblivious to the passers-by who stop to watch her, open-mouthed.

"The streetlights are my stage lights and the passers-by, my audience," says the 10-year-old, showing not a trace of shyness.

Since April 2009, Yao Qifeng has been making the daily, post-dinner trip to the square to practice her ballet moves, accompanied by her father.

"Dancing is her passion," says her father Yao Yongzhong.

Yao's story, highlighted recently by the Chengdu-based West China City Newspaper, has touched millions of Chinese readers via the Internet. Many organizations, as well as individuals, have responded with offers of help.

Yao lives with her parents in a dark, dank, rented room crammed with old furniture.

The family lives on less than 1,000 yuan ($150) a month, comprising the unemployed father's subsistence allowance and the mother's meager wages as a supermarket assistant.

For Yao, the one bed that occupies a third of their room is more than just a place where she and her parents sleep, it is also her "stage".

"My daughter has been following (ballet) performers on television from the age of 4," the father says.

Asked why she is so fond of dancing, Yao says: "I think all dancers are beautiful, and I have always dreamed of being one of them."

When she was 7, Yao would often go to Chengdu Arts' Center, peering through the windows to see her classmates learning ballet.

"I really envied them, but I never told my parents because one term cost more than 400 yuan ($60) - too expensive for my family," Yao recalls.

But her parents could read her thoughts. Finally, in 2008, after scraping together every penny they had saved, they sent Yao to her long cherished dance class.

"I was too shy to enter the dance room at first, because there were so many people there. But once I started dancing, I forgot everything else," Yao says.

She dared not dream of a ballet dress, but chanced upon a pair of ballet shoes discarded by a classmate, and has cherished them ever since.

"It wouldn't matter even if I have to dance barefoot, as long as I can dance," the girl says.

In just one term, Yao made it to the fourth grade, something that takes most dancers three terms of training.

"She is gifted but she also loves ballet from her heart and works harder than all the others," Wang Qian, headmaster of Yao's training school, says. "We could see that she really cherished the opportunity to learn."

Once the term ended, Yao told her parents she could practice by herself and do without the training.

"Obviously she was worried about the fees," her father says.

It was her mother who discovered the open ground which, Yao says, is "just like a dance room". A discarded carpet, that Yao senior picked up outside a shop, completes the picture.

Many people stopped to watch and praise her dancing, but one elderly neighbor gave the father and daughter a DVD player so they could watch ballet performances.

"She is sensible and self-disciplined, and she spends most of her time studying rather than playing like her peers," says Hou Mingyu, a neighbor who has known Yao for nearly five years. "She is mature beyond her years."

Thanks to the Soong Ching Ling Foundation, a charity organization, Yao has returned to her dance classes.

"We were moved by her diligence after reading her story," Tu Huajun from the organization says. "It would be a pity if she has to give up her dream or waste her talents, so we have decided to fund her training with 5,000 yuan ($751) every year."

Having a wide range of interests, Yao also takes classes in drawing, singing and calligraphy, and has been excelling in these as well.

"It's like she never tires and has a strong determination to do well in all that she is learning," headmaster Wang says. "She's such a vivacious girl."

Yao has decided to apply to the People's Liberation Army's Institute of Arts in Beijing in 2011, where she can study for free.

"I want to learn all kinds of dances, and become a great dancer like Yang Liping or Hou Honglan," says the confident youngster, without batting an eyelid.

Yang is choreographer and star performer of the acclaimed Dynamic Yunnan show and Hou is often referred to as China's "princess of ballet".

Yao Qifeng treasures the pair of ballet shoes a classmate discarded.

Yao Qifeng excels in her studies, despite the poor conditions.

 

She may not have the fancy ballet dresses of her classmates, but Yao Qifeng's talent and persistence have won over many supporters.

(China Daily 12/09/2010 page20)