In a remote village in Yunnan province, a 9-year-old girl learns to dance ballet on her cell phone while helping her parents take care of their pork store. The girl is very talented at dancing and has quickly mastered many of the difficult moves in the dance just by teaching herself. When asked what she would like to do in the future, the girl raised her head and said with firm and clear eyes that she would like to dance.
FrustrationBecause the girl loved dancing, her mother wanted to do her part to help her realize her dream. So the girl's mother went around her hometown looking for a suitable dance class so that her child could practice dancing under the guidance of a professional teacher. But the village is so remote that the number of dance classes the child can attend is limited. The teachers at the classes said that the girl's talent for dance was exceptional, and that they were only able to teach her the basics. If the girl wants to learn to dance, she will have to go to Kunming or Beijing to find a more professional dance teacher to train her.
The twistThe girl herself practiced hard, but opportunity was also important. Fortunately, the girl's mother was able to meet two couples from Beijing who were also dance teachers at the Beijing Dance Academy through some connections for the sake of her daughter's dream. The two teachers realized that the girl dancing in the pork store was very talented, and that her ability to hold on to her dream in a difficult environment was also very touching. Such a girl was like a luminary that attracted the attention of the two teachers, so they decided to quit their jobs in Beijing and came to Yunnan to teach the girl to dance. The male teacher said that the girl was indeed gifted in dance, and he sometimes felt that letting himself teach the girl to dance was like a thousand-horse teaching Bole. But the girl's dancing skills became more solid with her teacher's help, and she also made it to the big stage in Beijing with other girls from her village who were learning to dance.
The two teachers are the initiators of the "Caiyun Project", a program whose main focus is to help rural girls in Yunnan get a professional dance education. So far, the two teachers have opened dance classes with the support of local people. Many of the girls who have graduated from these classes have gone on to art schools or dance academies in Yunnan. Without the help of these two teachers, the girls in the village would have had to work as laborers after middle school, or at most marry after high school, as they did before. It was these two teachers who gave the village girls the chance to approach and realize their dreams.
What touched me in this story was not only the contribution of the two teachers to Yunnan's dance education, but also the energy in the 9-year-old girl's tiny body. The girl wakes up before 5 a.m. on weekdays to prepare for her parents' pork store. Any other 9-year-old girl would probably find it hard and feel aggrieved. But the girl is different, she is optimistic, she is proud of herself to help her parents. Later, when building the site for the village's dance class, the girl carried lumber much larger than she was and moved forward with determination. In her heart, she felt honored to contribute to the village dance class. I believe that such a strong and optimistic girl will have a bright future and will be able to realize her dreams in the future. At the same time, the girl's contentment is really worth many of us to learn from her.