Foreword
In 2006, when Yang Liping was picking up the primitive tribes on the border of Yunnan and Myanmar, she discovered a kind of magical drums, a kind of purely handmade giant musical instruments, the largest of which is three or four meters high, and a dozen people can't lift it, and this kind of drums can emit a kind of soul-shattering sound, and the process of making this kind of drums, makes people The process of making these drums is mind-boggling.
In order to find a tree that can make this drum, they have to go out to the whole village, the eggs thrown to the tree, which tree eggs thrown up will not be broken, the tree can be used to make the magic weapon, that is, the kind of drum.
Because only the presence of the gods on the tree, the eggs will not break. The whole village came together to cut down the tree, then dragged it back together, hollowed it out together, and then dipped it into a mud puddle for a year or two, so it never cracked.
When Yang Liping saw this drum with her own eyes and heard the music it played, she was so shocked that she burst into tears, as if she had felt the call of the gods.
So she spent nearly a year going around collecting these drums, and other instruments, and created a large-scale percussion dance, The Rattle of Yunnan.
Ironically, in "The Sound of Yunnan", Yang also played a woman in labor for the first time, performing a dance of "giving birth".
But in reality, she went through two marriages, both ended in divorce, and now 63 years old, still no children. Is it a dedication to the arts, or is there something you can't tell us? Let's go into the world of the Peacock Fairy.
01
In 1958, Yang Liping was born in the mountains of Yunnan, a place called Eryuan, the Bai ethnic group, shortly after her birth, her parents divorced, Yang Liping and three younger siblings followed their mother to live. In that remote mountain village, the poor family girl in order to have a mouth to feed, not yet old enough to marry early.
But Yang Liping is never worried about life, she grew up especially good at creating wealth, planting vegetables can also be planted especially well, in the town fancy a pair of flower socks are very nice, she went home to the mountains to pick mushrooms, and then strung up with grass, sat in a basket and the third sister to the market to sell, 7 cents a string, people look at the mushrooms are so fresh, strung and good-looking, and soon bought out.
The Bai people like to sing and dance, old and sick, and even in lawsuits, even to sing, the plaintiff, the defendant and the judge sat together, you a sentence I sang, singing finished the lawsuit is also finished.
At that time, the little Yang Liping, has been the best dancing in the village.
She has shown extraordinary dance talent since she was a child, no professional dance teacher, rely on self-study can dance very well, in the Xishuangbanna farm school, she became the leader of the recess drill.
In 1971, a dance troupe in Xishuangbanna to pick people, a glance at this extraordinary temperament of the young girl, want her to participate in the dance troupe, and you can get a monthly subsidy of 30 yuan, Yang Liping heart.
She thought her mother would be very happy, because the family's life can be better, happy to go home and tell her mother about it, did not expect her mother's face a cold, determined not to let her go.
It turns out that in that remote mountainous region, the idea is backward, many people think that girls go out to dance performances, wearing revealing clothes, and male dance partner so close, is hurtful to the morals.
But Yang Liping this "wild girl", but as if the heart of the roots, as if the heart wants to go to dance, she wants to dance to express those who can not speak, her mother to take her back, she ran out again.
Mom also had to look at the sky beyond the mountain sighed "this wild girl's life, just let her it!"
02
2 years later, 13-year-old Yang Liping out of the pavilion, with good physical conditions and dance talent, jumped into the Xishuangbanna State Song and Dance Troupe.
But here she suffered a serious blow, 7 years did not dance on the main dance, she first experienced the "society" and "group" these concepts, only to realize how out of place they are.
Although she has a very good dance talent, but the song and dance troupe dance is a group dance, we all have to be in a rhythm, the movement is neat and tidy to look good, but Yang Liping because of the poor foundation, often can not keep up with the rhythm, and she does not like to dance with other people to do the same dance action, think that it is just doing "recess exercises", no sense of aesthetics
She has always been a good dancer.
She always like to free play, follow their own feelings, often slowing down the pace, the whole troupe to stop and adjust her, and from the deep mountains out of Yang Liping, not good at talking personality is also withdrawn, and everyone is out of place, in the long run, she in the troupe everywhere by the ostracism, but also can not get a good chance to perform.
But Yang Liping, on the contrary, felt no constraints, she originally did not care about those illusory fame and fortune, but instead of enjoying the quiet, they found a place where no one jumped up and down, and sometimes they go to see the peacocks, look at the flowers and grasses, and sometimes look at half a day, as if the soul has been drifting away to talk to them.
The gold will always shine, in 1979, the troupe choreographed a new dance drama "Peacock Princess", Yang Liping is the main actor's understudy, the day of the official performance of the main actor was sick and can not go on stage, Yang Liping as a replacement, in the director's eyes full of worry on the stage jumped up.
I did not expect Yang Liping peacock gesture out, the whole room fell into silence, as if the real peacock princess appeared in general. The whole audience followed her unique body, full of spiritual dance, together into the story of the sacred Peacock Princess.
At the end of the performance, the whole audience rang a warm applause, Yang Liping won the first prize of the Yunnan Provincial Dance Competition, and therefore was transferred to the Central Nationalities Song and Dance Troupe.
03
But this "promotion" did not make her very happy, because after arriving in Beijing, she was more "not suited to the soil", the troupe asked her to follow the ballet and classical dance standards to train, and the troupe was also very happy. The company asked her to train according to the standards of ballet and classical dance, and all the dances in the company, the ballet component is very heavy.
And Yang Liping is a even split, down the waist of such basic skills are not people, so by the whole troupe of people ridiculed, such a simply can not dance people, how can dance good dance it? The first thing you need to do is to tell jokes.
Yang Liping also does not care, just after others off work, and then secretly go to the rehearsal room, practicing their favorite peacock dance, she performed in the Spring Festival evening, "Peacock" is created at that time.
A proud, independent of the world, only for their own unique beauty of the peacock, this dance does not have a high degree of difficulty in the splits to lift the legs and waist, there are just a few simple hand movements and arm twisting, but the peacock's demeanor to show the best, as if a real peacock standing in front of you.
In 1988, on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, a hit, visited many countries for artistic exchanges, her peacock dance also went to the world. In addition to dancing, many movies and TV dramas also competed to invite her to perform.
In 2002, when Zhang Jizhong shot "The Legend of the Eagle Shooting Heroes", he invited Yang Liping to play Mei Chaofeng, and Yang Liping's cool and overwhelming temperament was almost in character, and even her long fingernails added a lot of points.
Zhang Jizhong, director of the "Venus Show" when talking about this section, said Yang Liping was into the group shooting, never with an assistant, other than her fame than the stars are before and after the embracing, only she, so big an actor, one person went.
But the magic is, the whole crew automatically give her as an assistant, "Mr. Yang sit, coat to you on", the water over "Mr. Yang you drink water", even Zhang Jizhong have not seen this scene, he marveled: He marveled: "This is the real respectable artist ah!"
Zhang Jizhong couldn't stop praising that Mr. Yang's performance of Mei Chaofeng is really "unprecedented"!
04
Why do we always compare Yang Liping and Venus together, it is necessary to say that they are together as judges of those fights.
After her retirement in 2003, Yang Liping returned to Yunnan for a 10-year journey, where she felt that the land she was rooted in had too many beautiful things to show to the world.
So she searched for the most original music, looking for local native farmers, came together to rehearse and perform a large-scale original songs and dances, "Reflections of Yunnan".
For example, when she found Shrimp Gar, he was herding cows, and the cows ran away, and Shrimp Gar shouted "Help me catch the cows, yo~!" from one hill to another.
He and the village people, dancing on the edge of the cliff, playing the "blind drum", playing the hands are bleeding, Yang Liping think this is the real love of dance, so he brought him out.
After the release of "Reflections of Yunnan", it was widely acclaimed, and the world marveled at such an original song and dance work, which looked earthy and beautiful.
But at that time, a show, the income is only a hundred thousand, not enough for the expenses of the dance troupe, Yang Liping and find ways to make money, her goal is very clear, as soon as possible to earn money on the withdrawal, so she chose a variety show, when the judges, met the wrongdoer Jin Xing.
05
In 2013, the "Dance Forest Competition" began to broadcast, the first issue of the ratings on the national 1.07 good results, which has to be said to be the credit of the four star tutors, which is the most interesting is the Venus and Yang Liping's argument.
These two fearless old artists, often for a little thing on the quarrel, Venus speak rules, Yang Liping speak feeling.
In a group of dancers after the dance, straight-talking Venus up on the unhappy, said that the front of everyone is a combination of cross-dance, but they are still two ethnic dances together, jumping is very good, but she did not buy a single, and asked for a replacement than again.
The atmosphere is already very tense, the host is "not afraid of things" to provoke Yang Liping, said: we also want to see how Ms. Yang see?
Sure enough, Ms. Yang, a talented teacher, said innocently, I think they danced very well ah, is not a combination of cross-dance, but they were originally dancing folk dance, today's dance is a modern dance ah, there is no problem ah.
Jin Xing to the anxious, said not Mr. Yang, this test is a cross-dance with the problem.
But Yang Liping is still in a state of confusion, Venus angry lungs are going to explode, almost shook Yang Liping's shoulders and said, Ms. Yang, do you read the rules ah? Even the contestants on stage couldn't help but laugh.
Later, Yang Liping slapped the table that time, but also her character and the pursuit of the most embodied, the theme of the competition is jazz dance, the dancers only added a little jazz, Venus came to talk about the rules, said this is not good, not jazz, jumping is not good at all.
It was Venus who forced Ms. Yang, who usually doesn't say much, into a "machine gun", saying angrily, "Why would you deny that they're good dancers just because they danced a little bit of jazz? He danced very well just now, reflecting his uniqueness as a dancer. Why does it have to be jazz? Where is he himself? I'm against this idea of getting someone over here who is Spanish one minute and jazz the next, as if I'm standing on this stage and I'm brushed off because I didn't dance jazz well, so I'm not a good dancer?"
At this moment, she may be thinking of the years she was denied, Venus heard this almost cried, said, "But he is reported to be dancing jazz ah"
06
Although in the program on the quarrel of the red neck thick, the two people who are not convinced by anyone, but privately, Venus is still the most important thing.
Despite their quarrels on the show, Venus is still very respectful of her in private, she said in Ma Dong's program: "I appreciate her and her dance, she grinds a thing through, grinds it to the extreme, to an unsurpassable height, it's too difficult, she's my predecessor".
The peers who can let the straight-talking Venus so praised, there is only Yang Liping, her love of peacock dance, and the dedication to the spread of national culture, there is no second person in the world can replace.
In order to dance, she gave up two marriages, just because she did not want to delay the dance life in order to have a child, in order to maintain the body, she did not eat rice for more than 30 years, a few slices of beef, a few slices of apple is her meal.
Many people questioned whether she didn't have children because she couldn't, and she herself admitted that "having children doesn't really affect dancing, and many dancers have had children."
Forget about love, it's just a choice, when the other half of the need for a woman to give birth to a child, she frankly broke up with them, so that they go to find their own happiness, and she herself, never alone, all living things are her children, a flower is also her daughter, a tree is also her son.
Some people looked at her later works, Two Trees, Reflections of Yunnan, and her behavior of eating roses, keeping long nails, etc., and thought she was crazy, a fairy in the first half of her life, and a lunatic in the second half.
But do not know, "not crazy not live", only to reach the realm of obsession, in order to do a thing to the extreme, in order to call it a real work of art, she used her "crazy" on the dance to write a brilliant and wonderful life, and became a true "Peacock Princess", "the Peacock Princess". She used her "madness" for dance to write a splendid life, and became a real "Peacock Princess".
Her life, and the peacock spirit, and her native land into one, she is not in the world, but living in the world above the artist, the world's words, in her ears like the breeze swept through, and soon disappeared.