The dancing begins...

Hellooo friends. It’s Saturday, 4pm, and I am sitting in the internet café again. Our building has been in the dark ages all week, so I must resort to this smoky environment in which I can access the web (Actually, now, it’s really Sunday that I am posting this. The internet café failed me so I couldn’t actually post this online).

I had my first 2 days of rehearsal with LDTX this week.  As a result, I feel like someone just used me as a punching bag. Going 3 weeks without dance class then jumping into 6 hours of rehearsal is definitely not the smartest idea I’ve had. Nonetheless, I had a really great 2 days. On Thursday I left my apartment around 8:30am to brave the long commute to Shuangjing. It takes all of an hour to get down to the studios because of the 3 subway transfers I have to do. Luckily I have my Chinese lessons on CD so I can do some studying while I am packed like a sardine into the subway. Sarabeth met me at the station in Shuangjing and walked with me over to the studios to meet the dancers. She showed me around a bit, but had to get back to the offices (the new LDTX facility is under construction so they are rehearsing at Beijing Song and Dance Troupe right now). I took ballet class with everyone from 10-11:30, then we rehearsed from 11:45 to 5:30 with an hour lunch break.

I am working with the 1^st company right now, which has 13 dancers- 7 male and 6 female. I think there is one 22 year old and the rest are 25 to 40. I’m definitely the baby of the group! And, as expected, the tallest as well. Ah, such is life. When they took my measurements on Friday for costuming, I scanned all of the other female measurements, especially the height, inseam, shoulder width…Let’s just say it’s a good thing they are creating new costumes for this piece! This week we worked with 2 choreographers from Hong Kong on the piece we will present in Shanghai in June at the Expo. The kind of work we did was really familiar to me. Lots of improvisation, creating our own phrases, putting them with other phrases, etc. The only difference was that all communication happened in Mandarin. Just a small difference, really (I hope you noticed that was dripping with sarcasm). I definitely don’t speak Chinese. However, the combination of body language and my small vocabulary made for a surprising level of movement comprehension! Also, very luckily, the 2 choreographers speak English. Though they do speak, the company members don’t (a few can speak a bit, but no one actually uses the language). When the choreographers did translate for me, it was just a few words or sentences, not as eloquent as their descriptions in Chinese. But, despite that little barrier, I really was able to fit myself into the dancing and understand the directions we were all given.

While communication through dance is not incredibly difficult, socializing is quite a different story. Not only have I stepped into a world of an unfamiliar language, I have stepped into a professional company, a family already established. If my observations are correct, the 13 dancers in the main company have a very similar relationship to my dance family at LINES. We are all so close that adding a new body into the mix always calls for a bit of hesitation. Now just imagine not being able to verbally communicate…Mhmmmm, not so easy. Willy Tsao (the artistic director of LDTX, City Contemporary Dance Center in Hong Kong, and GuangDong Modern dance company) introduced me to everyone, but all they know is,

Zhe shi Rachael, ta shi Meiguo ren. Ta zai Minzu Daxue xuexi Hanyu…

(This is Rachael, she is from America and is studying Chinese at Minzu University…I couldn’t understand the rest of what he said).

I cannot expect to become “one of them”. At least not right now.  Maybe when the language barrier is thinner than a concrete wall.  It is really only difficult for social reasons.  If I didn’t care about having personal relationships with these people, it wouldn’t matter.  But that, fortunately, is not the case. 

Despite the tough stuff, I am incredibly impressed with the dancers. I can really see the age and experience in everyone (in a good way). It makes me understand why companies don’t want to work with dancers who haven’t had much professional experience. There is a level of confidence and assurance that these dancers have, and it is noticeable when they are dancing and even smoking outside (yes, all but 1 or 2 smoke in the alcove right outside of the studio. Definitely something to get used to. I have kind of come to terms with the fact that all of my clothing perpetually smells like cigarettes.) There is also a sort of level of natural professionalism that exists within the company. As I mentioned before, they all seem very close, so there is a lot of goofing around and laughter. But even with this, they are always 100% present in their dancing and choreographic task. The dancers are there because they want to dance, not because anyone is making them. I suppose these are all assumptions, but…that’s all I have to offer until I can actually talk to them :P. 

Thursday I went through moments of feeling quite defeated. I really just wanted to talk to the dancers, tell them why I was there, what I wanted to learn from them, what my experience was, etc, and I wanted to hear about them and what their experiences were.  Again, something I have to come to terms with right now- very limited verbal communication. I mostly felt this way during our breaks and lunchtime. I ended up just keeping to myself, writing in my journal, getting come coffee. It’s very easy to be shy when you can’t use your words to express yourself.  As most of you know, I always talk about the fact that words are my most valuable form of communication. Welllllll, too bad for me, I need to find a new way to communicate! No, I shouldn’t say it’s too bad for me; it is definitely a good thing. It’s just hard to adjust to, to not able to ask questions, tell people what I need, etc. BUT, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Friday was much better as far as socializing goes. One of the newer dancers, Li Heng, came and sat with me while I was scanning through my dictionary (pathetic, I know J). He literally doesn’t speak a word of English, but somehow, we had a small conversation. I managed to tell him how old I was and that I couldn’t come to class and rehearsals every day because I have language classes.  He then offered to be my “hanyu laoshi” (Chinese teacher) and I offered my services as his “yingwen laoshi” (English teacher). During our lunch break, he invited me to the cafeteria with some of the dancers and I ate with 4 of the company men and the 2 choreographers. Sigh of relief . It made me feel so much better that someone took an initiave to include me (especially since I couldn’t manage to do it myself).

Though my body is in serious pain, I had a great 2 days of dancing and all of the inescapable exposure to Chinese is really good for my language skills. I am pleased to be bruised and sore again, and feel really good about getting back into the studio. I’m also supposed to be working a bit with Liu Liu, my ethnic dance teacher, creating some sort of piece. Apparently, there is a “competition” between international students, so my program is putting together some sort of program of pieces- from classic Chinese dances to awful American pop culture dance, it should be embarrassingly entertaining.

And now, the evening calls. Take care all J