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In ballet class, underprivileged dance fairy tale
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DRESSED in delicate pointed shoes and a wispy tutus, 13-year-old Lin Shuxin feels like a real princess as she watches herself in the mirror, her body dancing the movements of “The Nutcracker.”
Born as the child of a financially disadvantaged family whose income barely covered necessities, ballet classes seemed out of reach for Lin — until a woman at school approached her, asking one simple question: Would you like to dance ballet?
“Any girl would say yes, as long as she had seen those beautiful images on TV,” Lin says. Lin was told that she would be allowed to join the classes for free. “This invitation was like a gift send straight from heaven,” she added.
In the past four years, Lin has been attending ballet class every week at the Conservatory of International Style and Cultural Arts (CISCA) in Beijing. All her expense are covered by the Tian Art Foundation, which aims at making art education accessible for children from all socioeconomic backgrounds.
The classes allowed Lin to learn ballet, to perform on stage and to make friends who share the same interest.
“It was like a dream that I hardly dared to dream, yet magically, it came true,” says Lin.
Lin isn’t the only child who benefits from the foundation.
The Tian Art Foundation was founded in 1999 by Flora Zeta Cheong-Leen and is now working in cooperation with child-support organizations like “Little Dance Shoes,” “Light Love Family” and “Sun Village” to provide full scholarships to hundreds of disadvantaged children. Thanks to the scholarships, about 20 percent of students at the CISCA are now from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, including orphans, children suffering from chronic diseases and those with a parent in prison.
“I hope the art-related classes will help the children find happiness and confidence — that’s what ballet has given me,” says Cheong-Leen. “They may be born into a less privileged family, but so what? They still have the right to pursue their dreams.”
Though based in Hong Kong, the foundation has expanded its programs to the Chinese mainland in 2009 when Cheong-Leen started CISCA in Beijing. This year, the foundation will expand its charity program to Shanghai.
“In China, many people still live in poverty. Though it is impossible to offer help to all of them, we aim to sponsor a minimum of 100 students annually,” says Cheong-Leen.
Her father, a politician, would take Cheong-Leen along when he paid visits to poor neighborhoods in Hong Kong. The experience had a huge impact on her, and is one of the reasons why she is now so dedicated to help the disadvantaged within her capability. In the late 1990’s Cheong-Leen was already a well-known ballet dancer, choreographer, fashion designer and TV producer in Hong Kong. She decided to use her popularity to start bringing arts to the less privileged.
“Art, especially ballet, is widely considered as something that’s exclusive to the rich in China. It may be true, considering the high cost of ballet class and costumes, but it isn’t always the case when considering talents,” says Cheong-Leen. “I have come across quite a number of children from poor families gifted in dance in my early years as part-time social-worker in Hong Kong. All that they need is a chance, and a way to access the art.”
To popularize ballet among a wider group of Chinese and search for children with talent, Cheong-Leen established her own foundation for art education in Hong Kong and started to invite children in need to participate, promising free classes and covering other related expenses like costume and exam fees.
In Beijing, doing so was even trickier, as the families with low incomes often have limited knowledge of ballet. Charities that were already operating in Beijing helped link kids with the foundation, and the gap was bridged soon.
“We don’t have any entrance exams. All that we asked is: Do you know ballet? And would you like to try?” Cheong-Leen says. “They don’t have to know much about ballet, as long as they love to dance.”
Children on sponsorships dance in the same group as children whose parents are able to pay the full tuition fee.
“No parents have ever complained about the program arrangement,” she says. Some have even offered their support to keep the program running and help with its expansion.
Yang Ning, a parent with two children at CISCA and a longtime member of the parents’ association, is one of many vocal supporters of the foundation’s work as she says that she sees the advantage in it for her own children. “It provides a great chance for children to learn how to help people in need,” she says.
One day, her daughter asked if she could give a pair of her ballet socks to a friend whose socks were torn. Yang was touched. “At that moment, I felt that my daughter had grown-up,” she says. “There’s an abundance of money-donation programs today. But studying and communicating with disadvantaged children will help my own children learn to care and share.”
Lin, as a senior student at the CISCA now also works as an assistant at the school, helping the younger ones.
“I want to be a ballet dancer when I grow up, or at least a ballet teacher,” says Lin, “Everything about ballet is like a fairy tale, and I want to continue being a part of it.”
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