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Deaf dance troupe embraces the Latin spirit
By Xu Wenwen |
February 17, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TWISTING their hips in time with the beat of cha-cha-cha music, dancers repeatedly practice turning their bodies into a side-by-side position and extending their arms outward to perfect the New York step.
During this rigorous two-hour session, the dancers show great concentration and work up a sweat shaking their bodies rhythmically. However, what makes this group of Latin dancers so remarkable is that they are all deaf.
Though they are unable to hear, the dancers follow the instructions given by their coach Wang Jilun. Wang is hard of hearing and can only hear the music when it is very loud.
This is a typical class of the Hangzhou Latin Dance Team for Deaf-mutes. Everyone in the team - from its initiator to the coach and dancers - has hearing disabilities.
Founded in March 2009, the team has given several performances citywide. And it will be recruiting more members next month to increase its lineup.
The team affiliated to Hangzhou Artists' Association for the Disabled is said to be the country's only team that consists of deaf people specializing in Latin dance. The team was the brainchild of Mao Donglai, vice chairman of the association and also a dancer with poor hearing.
According to Mao, there are many deaf dancers in various artistic troupes for the disabled in China, such as those of the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe, whose well-known "Thousand-Hand Bodhisattva" was performed in the 2005 CCTV Spring Festival Gala. However, while most deaf people perform slow, elegant Chinese folk dance, the Hangzhou troupe remains unique because its members do the passionate, fast Latin dance.
Despite the difficulty of Latin dance, Mao, inspired by its recent popularity, wanted to give deaf dancers more options and gave it a try in 2009.
She organized a citywide audition and chose four men and four women as the initial team members. Their average age was around 30, and all had previous dance training.
The beginning was as hard as Mao expected. Even Jin Botao, the leading dancer of the Zhejiang Artistic Troupe of the Disabled, acknowledged to teacher Wang "it is the hardest dance he has ever done."
Wang, who excels at Latin, folk and hip-hop dance, explains the difficulty of Latin dance lies in the hip-twisting moves and the coordination of many parts of the body. "It is easy for a Latin dancer to embrace other dances, but it is not easy for other dancers to embrace Latin dance.
"Furthermore, common people listen to the music and follow the beat, but my students have to see the coach's pose or beat the time in their heads," says Wang, who communicates using an audiphone device.
However, such difficulty didn't hinder the disabled dancers, it encouraged them.
"The more they worked, the more energetic they became," Mao says using the instant messenger QQ.
Lu Kequn, a 27-year-old dancer who used to do folk dance, explains her passion for Latin dance.
"I love Latin dance so much because of its distinctiveness - it's sexy, wild and passionate. Girls love to be beautified, and Latin dance is a great way," she says using QQ. "Besides, Latin dancers are able to perform solo or as a duo, which, for deaf dancers, is seldom in other kinds of dances."
"In the training, I saw passion, sunshine and hope sparkling from their eyes, which can not be seen from other kinds of dance," adds Mao. "Actually most of them are already parents, but I see they find youth from the dance."
Some may reckon that though deaf people dance arduously, they simply repeat movements rigidly without spirit because of their hearing impairment.
Lu says: "We love dance, and also love life. Through dance we are able to express ourselves, and through dance we can get the attention and love from people."
Although the difficulty of the art doesn't hinder these hard workers, the limited resources of the Hangzhou Artists' Association for the Disabled does.
The team doesn't have a permanent venue to practice, so they hop between places that are either rented or borrowed. For a long while, they even had classes in a poorly equipped meeting room without a mirror. Plus, they could only rent costumes rather than buy them, because one piece costs more than 1,000 yuan (US$152).
To solve this financial problem, Mao plans to promote the group by giving more performances in the future. But for the moment, she is focussing on averaging up the troupe, because "to achieve a standard of Latin dance takes a dancer at least three or four years."
During this rigorous two-hour session, the dancers show great concentration and work up a sweat shaking their bodies rhythmically. However, what makes this group of Latin dancers so remarkable is that they are all deaf.
Though they are unable to hear, the dancers follow the instructions given by their coach Wang Jilun. Wang is hard of hearing and can only hear the music when it is very loud.
This is a typical class of the Hangzhou Latin Dance Team for Deaf-mutes. Everyone in the team - from its initiator to the coach and dancers - has hearing disabilities.
Founded in March 2009, the team has given several performances citywide. And it will be recruiting more members next month to increase its lineup.
The team affiliated to Hangzhou Artists' Association for the Disabled is said to be the country's only team that consists of deaf people specializing in Latin dance. The team was the brainchild of Mao Donglai, vice chairman of the association and also a dancer with poor hearing.
According to Mao, there are many deaf dancers in various artistic troupes for the disabled in China, such as those of the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe, whose well-known "Thousand-Hand Bodhisattva" was performed in the 2005 CCTV Spring Festival Gala. However, while most deaf people perform slow, elegant Chinese folk dance, the Hangzhou troupe remains unique because its members do the passionate, fast Latin dance.
Despite the difficulty of Latin dance, Mao, inspired by its recent popularity, wanted to give deaf dancers more options and gave it a try in 2009.
She organized a citywide audition and chose four men and four women as the initial team members. Their average age was around 30, and all had previous dance training.
The beginning was as hard as Mao expected. Even Jin Botao, the leading dancer of the Zhejiang Artistic Troupe of the Disabled, acknowledged to teacher Wang "it is the hardest dance he has ever done."
Wang, who excels at Latin, folk and hip-hop dance, explains the difficulty of Latin dance lies in the hip-twisting moves and the coordination of many parts of the body. "It is easy for a Latin dancer to embrace other dances, but it is not easy for other dancers to embrace Latin dance.
"Furthermore, common people listen to the music and follow the beat, but my students have to see the coach's pose or beat the time in their heads," says Wang, who communicates using an audiphone device.
However, such difficulty didn't hinder the disabled dancers, it encouraged them.
"The more they worked, the more energetic they became," Mao says using the instant messenger QQ.
Lu Kequn, a 27-year-old dancer who used to do folk dance, explains her passion for Latin dance.
"I love Latin dance so much because of its distinctiveness - it's sexy, wild and passionate. Girls love to be beautified, and Latin dance is a great way," she says using QQ. "Besides, Latin dancers are able to perform solo or as a duo, which, for deaf dancers, is seldom in other kinds of dances."
"In the training, I saw passion, sunshine and hope sparkling from their eyes, which can not be seen from other kinds of dance," adds Mao. "Actually most of them are already parents, but I see they find youth from the dance."
Some may reckon that though deaf people dance arduously, they simply repeat movements rigidly without spirit because of their hearing impairment.
Lu says: "We love dance, and also love life. Through dance we are able to express ourselves, and through dance we can get the attention and love from people."
Although the difficulty of the art doesn't hinder these hard workers, the limited resources of the Hangzhou Artists' Association for the Disabled does.
The team doesn't have a permanent venue to practice, so they hop between places that are either rented or borrowed. For a long while, they even had classes in a poorly equipped meeting room without a mirror. Plus, they could only rent costumes rather than buy them, because one piece costs more than 1,000 yuan (US$152).
To solve this financial problem, Mao plans to promote the group by giving more performances in the future. But for the moment, she is focussing on averaging up the troupe, because "to achieve a standard of Latin dance takes a dancer at least three or four years."
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