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Life in China Silk and Metal
Life in China Silk and Metal | Silk and Metal |
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| China | |
| Thursday, 13 September 2007 | |
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One of the major things I had to get use to after I came back to London from Beijing three months ago is cooking every day. Cooking actually takes so much time! I miss the days in the Beijing Dance Academy when I didn't have to cook and clean up at all. It saves a hell lot of time! And I was eating so well in Beijing, you know? At every meal time, I went the dining-hall; there were a whole selection of meat dishes, vegetable dishes (including my favourite Tofu dishes), soups, and bread. At lunch and supper times, I normally chose a small plate of a meet dish, a small plate of a vegetables and have two mantou (steamed buns) and a cup of zhou (thin porridge). All these for only half a pound! I honestly don't eat nearly well enough here. I walk very fast in London, a lot faster than walking in China. This morning I got up at ten past six, and left home and ten past seven, in order to be early enough for The Place's contemporary dance class for professionals. Crowds at Victoria and Euston stations are always scary at peak times. I have to pass both of these major stations to get The Place. But compare to the Beijing train station around Chinese national holiday times, these crowds are nothing. "I am a man, I have a broad back, I have a strong waist and extremely strong legs..." I tell myself this whenever I am in a contemporary dance class here. Men and women dance in the same way in contemporary dance here, males and females attend the same dance classes. Everyone dances in a way to show strength, your movements are supposed to be strong, and teachers praise you "this time is a lot stronger." But in Chinese dance, females are so feminine, males are so manly, we were never in the same class. Men and women do completely different moves. I feel I am a piece of silk when I do Chinese dance. I move between my silk fan and my "orchid hand". I moved in curved lines all the time, nothing too sharp or too strong. And when I do Western contemporary dance, in order to dance more like the rest of class, I tell myself to be firm, strong, like a piece of metal, move in squares rather than curved lines, work every piece of my muscles - especially on my legs - very hard. Trying to show strength, and most of the time, telling myself dance like a man! There is one more major difference. In Chinese dance, face impressions are almost the most important thing. Chinese folk dance is like open air theatre, we act all the way through. But western contemporary dance keep faces really straight. It took me quite a while to get use to dance without a smile, at the same time it took ages to discover the beauty of a straight face too. MeiMei www.meimei.co.uk co-founder of HARMONY http://harmonyensemble.co.uk/ |
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