profile by anastasia garachtchenko

The

Perfect

irouette P The story of how a multi-cultural experience is communicated through a classical form of art

By Anastasia Garachtchenko

hina, Winter of

C

1980.

Icy wind blows through the empty, cobblestone streets of Shanghai.

In a small classroom full of ten-yearolds, students re-

lentlessly scribble answers on their assigned school work, their heads bent down as they sit in perfectly arranged rows of desks. Two men wearing heavy fur coats and ushanka-hats walk into the room, bringing a gust of freezing air alongside them.

The teacher takes a step back and lets the strange men peruse the aisles and lift the chin of each boy in order to examine their facial structure. After each boy has been observed, the

men stand at the front of the room and order two of the students to report to the principal’s office. The selected boys nervously walk out of the room and are escorted by the men down the long dark corridor, each of them unsure of what they had done wrong. At the end of the corridor, the group reaches the principal’s office, where they are forced to stand side-byside and remove their trousers so that the men can inspect their legs.

he men consider

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the skinny boys for 5 minutes, before one of them says, “You and you, report to the Children’s Palace at 6 o’clock tomorrow morning.”

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u Xin, one of the

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boys, didn’t know

that the men in fur coats were representatives from the Beijing Dance Academy, one of the most prestigious dance institutions in the world.

He was required to pass six strict auditions full of children who had also never danced before in their lives,with a countless number of them being dismissed each audition. At the end of all the auditions, Yu Xin was one of two boys accepted to the academy from the entire Shanghai area.

I

first met Yu when

I was seven years old. He was wearing his signature red Northface jacket and some well-worn, white ballet shoes over grey socks.

His school, Yu Xin Ballet Company, had been recommended to me by a friend on my gymnastics team - telling me that they were both serious and fun, a combination that is hard to find.

t first, my fal-

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tering feet could hardly perform the techniques that every-

one else found easy, much less without falling over. Pirouettes, fast turns that involve perfect balance, seemed like an impossible feat - one that everyone else could do effortlessly. However, Yu’s encouraging personality motivated me.

I started stretching more and working with Yu to improve my technique and form. Eventually, after months of training, I landed my first double pirouet. I could tell simply from Yu’s face that he was overjoyed and, in that moment, I felt like I could achieve anything.

everal

S

scientific

studies, such as those of Elisabeth Barratt Hacking, Robert Barratt & William Scott, show that engaging children in a class helps them develop a healthy sense of achievement, one that can be carried into other areas of life, such as academia.

Yu knows that most of his students will never pursue ballet as a profession, but says “No matter what you are teaching, the subject matter is not as important as you building children’s character through all the steps, they learn how to be successful, how to make

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it through things, how to achieve things.”

fter

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being

his

student for ten years I find myself interested in learning the stories behind his multicultural dance styles. Yu told me he tried to balance out the serious technical training he received in China with a fun, light atmosphere that could keep children engaged and help them grow. Balancing both an intensive curriculum with a pleasant mood is like a pirouet in itself, ruined by even a slight tilt in direction. To keep stability in his class, Yu spent years trying to create the best environment to help children develop, just as I spent months trying to perfect my pirouet.

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fter

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graduating

from the Beijing Dance Academy, Yu danced with Shanghai Dance until 1991, when he was presented with the op-

the experience I had in China...after 5 years in Seattle I wanted to go expand my exploration of dancing variations so I went and auditioned in New York City and I joined American Ballet Theater which is one of the top companies in the world.”

With American Ballet theater, he danced in the Metropolitan Theater and guest taught all over the East Coast.

Eventually, Yu received a request to teach at Ballet San Jose, where he settled down and started his own company: Yu Xin Ballet School.

“The subject matter is not as important as you building children’s character“ portunity to go and join Northwest Ballet in Washington. The loose fluid techniques used by dancers in Washington was like nothing he had ever seen. “I was working with American choreographers, dancing with Americans; it’s a little different from

I like to share my

“

experiences with anyone who wants to learn movement.” Yu told me this was his reason for starting his own com-

pany: “It’s been a very amazing experience; as of now I like to teach …

I like to teach all kinds of people. In my adult classes I have adults who are up to eighty-seven years old - I have people from all different ages and I want to provide what they need in order to succeed.”

as happy in Yu’s class as she was in the other class, even though his class had a technical curriculum.

s I observe his

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level one ballet class, which consists of about ten kindergarteners all dressed in periwinkle blue, I notice that all the children listen to him u Xin has carefully. They only often been told occasionally giggle by parents that his as they jump over class is different his battered balfrom others. While let shoes, carefulother schools focus ly timing their jump more on being rec- so that they don’t reational for chil- crush the already dren, Yu helps chil- run-down shoes. He dren by creating a teaches the chilserious mood while dren just like he still retaining the instructs the adult fun. At one point classes-- only with a mother took her more silliness. When daughter out of his I later asked him class because she about it he said, thought her daugh- “we want to build ter wasn’t having the children’s charenough fun, just to acter through these return a few months dance steps, give later telling Yu them confidence, that the other class give them hope, give was a bit too much them something they fun - meaning that can reach in their her daughter’s bal- lives, beyond this let skills had not dancing. The easiest improved at all. Yu way to do this is to told me that the treat them like the girl’s mother was adults I hope they surprised to see will grow into.” her daughter just

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