"When she goes on stage, she attracts all eyes." Some people say this about Tan Yuan Yuan on the ballet stage. Looking at her physical appearance, Tan Yuanyuan was born for dance, with delicate features, a round and small head, and a slender figure, standing at 166cm tall and weighing only 47 kilograms. Sitting on the sofa, Tan Yuan Yuan's jaw rises, her shoulders sink, and her neck and arms are slender.
From ugly duckling to gifted girl
When 5-year-old Tan Yuan Yuan saw Swan Lake on TV and began to imitate the swan's movements on her tiptoes, she didn't realize the impact it would have on her life.
At the age of 11, she began studying ballet
At 17, she studied at the Stuttgart Ballet School in Germany
At 18, she became the youngest soloist with the San Francisco Ballet, one of the three largest ballet companies in the United States
At 21, she became the youngest principal dancer in the company's history, and remains the only Chinese principal dancer with one of the world's top ballet companies. Principal dancer
Tan Yuan Yuan was a "late bloomer" in dance two decades ago. At the age of 10, she was admitted to the Shanghai Ballet and Dance School. Her father didn't approve of her learning to dance, but her mother insisted that her daughter had talent, and the family argued so much that they had to flip a coin to decide. The result was "go", but Tan Yuanyuan started dancing nearly a year later than her classmates. As a result of late entry, Tan Yuanyuan could not always keep up with the progress, and had a very low self-esteem. "All the students around me were already good dancers, but I couldn't stand up, so I was the ugly duckling." Tan Yuanyuan recalled.
Tan Yuanyuan's outstanding physical condition and occasional flashes of brilliance in her normal practice were seen by her teachers at the school at the time, Lin Meifang and Chen Jiayian. They gave her daily tuition until Tan Yuan Yuan's level caught up. Tan recalls the young Yuan Yuan as saying, "Maybe because I was too strict with her, Tan Yuan Yuan cried all day long. Once, she shed tears again because she didn't meet the requirements, and I asked her if she wanted to cry or practice, she could only choose one. She chose to practice."
On the day of the interview, Tan Yuan Yuan also met with her two mentors. She and her partner were rehearsing excerpts from the dance drama "Giselle" in the dance school's practice room, and the two teachers were there to guide them. Tan Yuanyuan said, "They still have fiery eyes, and they still see those faults I had as a child at a glance." In 2007, Tan Yuanyuan and her two teachers, who have since emigrated to Canada, became one family, and almost every year she would go to her teachers' home in Canada to receive "special training"
Tan Yuanyuan always remembers the first time she formally appeared on stage at the age of 14. It was a local competition in Shanghai in 1991, and she hid backstage, so scared that she "felt her feet were not her own. So Lin Meifang kicked Tan Yuanyuan onto the stage. Tan Yuan Yuan went on stage shivering, her legs couldn't stop trembling, and she held on until the last movement, when the music stopped, and her legs still trembled. 2007, Tan Yuan Yuan laughed and imitated her own "trembling" look at that time. At that time, Lin Meifang's words made her memorable, "At your level, you'll be brushed off in the first round of the competition." "Nervous because of low self-esteem, low self-esteem because it is really far from it" , that competition is Tan Yuanyuan's only experience of failure.
Two years later, Tan Yuanyuan stood on the stage of the International Ballet Dance Competition in Paris, France, and Ulanova, the chairman of the jury, gave her a perfect score. Ulanova has always been Tan Yuan Yuan's idol, "a spiritual guide." When Tan Yuan Yuan received the gold trophy from Ulanova, Ulanova told her "perfect score girl" through her interpreter that she had to keep working hard in order to continue to improve. At the time, the San Francisco Ballet's artistic director, Helge Thomasson, was sitting in the audience, searching for new members for his company.
In 1995, Yuan Yuan Tan was 18 years old, a student at the Stuttgart Ballet and Dance School in Germany, and planning to stay with the Stuttgart Ballet after graduation. Tomasz, who had met Tan Yuan Yuan in Paris, had been trying to find the Chinese girl. After seeing her again in Germany, he invited her to perform at the San Francisco Ballet. It was a performance, but it was actually an exam. After a duet and solo performance, the San Francisco audience and Amazon fell for her. Amazon pulled out a paper contract, "Come to us and you'll be the youngest soloist."
Tan Yuan Yuan said, "I was like, that's not bad, so I went."
One-night stand-in to learn a new dance
Many people think that Tan Yuanyuan is a "one-night stand", but in fact, as a dancer, Tan Yuanyuan also had an important turning point. 18 years old, she represented the Shanghai Ballet to visit the United States, and was spotted by the San Francisco Ballet. "At that time, I just danced as I rehearsed on weekdays, maybe I played well, and then the people from San Francisco came to me and wanted me to join them, and everything was so natural." Tan Yuan Yuan said.
Tan Yuan Yuan certainly didn't let go of such a great opportunity to join the San Francisco Dance Company, and to jump three levels in a row to become a soloist, which had never been done before in the company's history. However, being too sharp may not be a good thing, especially still as an outsider coming to an unfamiliar environment, "Of course I was ostracized by people, and others wondered why a Chinese person could become a soloist so quickly, but fortunately, I then used my strength to make these people change their views." Tan Yuan Yuan said.
Subsequently, after unremitting efforts, Tan Yuanyuan gradually gained a firm foothold in the troupe, and became the chief, but it was an "accident". "At that time, the troupe has a chief actor on stage broke his fingers, the next day's performance can not be on, the head of the company found me, but also handed me a videotape, said you can not learn it down in one night. I took it then regardless, and luckily I did pretty well, and you all know the rest."
The Legend and Price of Perfection
In major American ballet companies, dancers are categorized into four levels: apprentice, group, soloist and principal dancer. At the time, it took 16 years for the San Francisco Ballet's other two principals to rise from apprentice to principal, and the youngest soloist was 23 years old; and Tan Yuan Yuan had just celebrated her 18th birthday.
The teenager faced a cold shoulder from the other girls when she was hired as a soloist after jumping two steps in a row. "After dancing on stage, they had nothing to say. Americans are very realistic, you're really good and that's nothing to say." The experience of her first year in the United States was lightly glossed over by Tan Yuanyuan. There was indeed no drama, and like any Chinese who first arrives in the United States and doesn't speak the language, Tan Yuanyuan would run to the telephone office in Chinatown to call her parents and burst into tears as soon as she heard their voices. After a year, Tan Yuan Yuan adapted to life in the U.S., became friendly with her coworkers, began to communicate smoothly with her dance partner in English, and made some Chinese friends in San Francisco. Tan Yuan Yuan's mother also began to often come to the United States to visit her; a few years later, her parents simply moved to San Francisco, living with Tan Yuan Yuan.
In 1998, one day during the season, the then chief of the Old Ballet accidentally broke his finger, and the next day's performance was in danger of being canceled. Tam was tasked with learning a production of Balanchine's Stravinsky Concerto in one night. Balanchine is the most influential choreographer of the 20th century, and most of his works are fast-paced and complex, making them difficult to master; while Stravinsky, known as the "Picasso of the music world," loves to play with rhythm.
"Stravinsky's music is very difficult to understand, and the rhythm of each bar is changing, which is more difficult for me." Tan Yuan Yuan said she had neither formally danced to Balanchine's work before nor knew much about Stravinsky. At the time, everyone was drumming in their minds, skeptical that she could learn all of this half-hour choreography in one night. As it turned out, Tan Yuan Yuan did it, "I was really pushed, and although I memorized it all in one night, I forgot it all the next day once the performance was over." The performance was so well received that an audience member wrote to the troupe asking who was dancing Stravinsky that day. From then on, the director had special trust in Tan Yuanyuan. After that, Tan Yuan Yuan was given many opportunities to dance other Balanchine's works and the entire Swan Lake. After Swan Lake, Tan Yuan Yuan was offered a contract as a principal dancer in 1998, when she was 21 years old. After becoming a principal dancer, she performed hundreds of shows every year, taking the lead roles in almost all of the company's productions, including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, and The Nutcracker; large posters with her photo hung in front of the San Francisco Ballet Theatre year-round; she became a guest of former President Bill Clinton, and sat in the audience of Alan Greenspan and Zhu Rongji when Premier Zhu Rongji visited the U.S. She was also a guest of the former president of the San Francisco Ballet Theatre. She sat between Alan Greenspan and Zhu Rongji during Premier Zhu's visit to the United States.
In 2001, the San Francisco Ballet's first European tour earned Tan Yuan Yuan international fame. Covent Garden, the London dance critic, called Tam "the biggest jewel in the old ballet crown"; Anna Kisslgoff, the New York Times dance critic, called her "a combination of sophistication and audacity". Tan Yuan Yuan was the only Chinese in Japan's prestigious Dance Magazine's list of 101 Dance Stars of the 20th Century, and in 2004, Tan Yuan Yuan was recognized as an "Asian Hero" and appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine. In an interview, Tan Yuan Yuan said that what sets her apart is "exaggeration", "the stage is big and the audience is far away, so the audience can't understand what you mean without amplifying your body language." She'll never forget the time in Paris when one of the judges told her, "To be a true artist, you have to dance for the heart, you have to perceive the space, understand the character, and touch your inner self." Tan Yuan Yuan says she doesn't always reach that goal, and she's trying hard to get there.
"Other people look like I dance with ease, but it's not really that way." Tan Yuanyuan dances lightly and smoothly, and underneath each move is the cohesion of a perfectionist's endless self-criticism. "If I make a wrong step on stage, I'll be upset for the whole day. There are 3,000 pairs of eyes watching you on stage, which makes the artist's life very tiring. Once you don't perform perfectly, then there exists a soft spot." Tan Yuan Yuan has three broken bones in her legs, the price she pays for perfection. In addition to the pressure of 3,000 pairs of eyes, Tan Yuan Yuan is burdened with Western and Chinese expectations of a talented young woman. Ballet is a Western art, and there are few Chinese who stand at the pinnacle of Western classical art. In the United States, contracts for dance companies are signed annually, and the principal is not a lifelong position, and can be replaced if one is not careful. For Tan Yuanyuan, the secret to success is to seize every opportunity. "Success once does not mean success again, once you let someone down once, it is likely that you will never be used again, and the chances of an Asian pulling it back may be a little smaller." Tan Yuan Yuan speaks of a young woman's inner trepidation and contradiction, "In fact, I myself do not have such a concern, my concern is how to keep myself from being disappointed, how to make myself satisfied."
Opened another door
Life in the U.S. for more than a decade has opened another door for Tan Yuanyuan.
Tan Yuan Yuan was thought to be an introverted and quiet person, but as the conversation progressed, the quiet Tan Yuan Yuan gradually became more active, from time to time to make a shrug of the shoulders or hands spread out the "American" gesture, and when it comes to the excitement of talking will also be happy to laugh, and sometimes talk will suddenly be "jammed! Sometimes she would suddenly get "stuck" in her speech because she couldn't remember how to say the Chinese word. By 2007, Tan Yuanyuan had a lot of friends, Chinese, Americans, art circles, non-art circles, and even lawyers, judges and friends. Tan Yuan Yuan said, "Friends are not limited to the art circle, it is a promotion for myself and a fun thing to do."
"My friends think I'm a funny person because I sometimes talk funny and like to joke, I guess." Tan's mother, however, told reporters that Tan Yuan Yuan was very introverted and non-verbal as a child, and that it was only after she arrived in the United States that she gradually became the way she is now. Tan Yuan Yuan's explanation for this is: "Perhaps the living environment in the United States is more relaxed, life is not very stressful. Of course there is pressure in dancing, if you don't move forward, you will go backward. But there's no need to think about such things as pressure all day long, otherwise it's not good for you ."
Tan Yuan Yuan is used to the living and working environment as well as the artistic atmosphere in the U.S., and the humid climate and beauty of San Francisco are to her liking. In addition to her life and personality, Tan Yuan Yuan's understanding of art is also changing. A few years ago, Tan Yuan Yuan's favorite play was Swan Lake or Giselle, but when asked now, she would answer like this: "Many people ask me what my favorite play is, but an artist shouldn't have a favorite, it's too parochial, she should like all kinds of dance. Besides ballet, jazz, street dance, I like them all, even though I can't dance."
American Ballet's season begins in December and runs through May, with performances almost every day during that time. As the star of all 18 of the company's programs, including two major productions, Tan is on stage six days a week, working 13 hours a day. Despite all this, Tan Yuan Yuan is also studying literature and art at the university, where she is in her third year. Because she intends to get her degree in three years when it should have taken four, she spends most of her spare time writing dozens of pages of papers. She said: "I want to get an A in every door, and if I accidentally have a B, then I want an A+ next time."
Just recently finished a theater class, where the exam consisted of acting out a play, and Tan Yuan Yuan chose Gwyneth? Evidence, a stage play starring Paltrow, and she herself played the part that Paltrow played. Although she has performed on stage many times, speaking on stage is the first time she has done so, which makes Tan Yuan Yuan feel both fresh and addicted.
When it comes to the future, Tan Yuan Yuan says she hasn't thought very hard about it and doesn't have any definite plans. The only thing she is sure of is that she will retire when her career reaches its peak, "because it will be more fulfilling." Now, at 30, Tan Yuan Yuan is single, lives with her parents and commutes to work in a Mercedes. She is neither weighed down by accolades nor does she let the years leave their mark on her. What looks like a busy, hard life, she leads like a dance, lifting weights.
No Beijing stage
Tan Yuan Yuan's fans are all over the world, but because of scheduling problems, her performances in Beijing have never materialized. Tan Yuan Yuan said many domestic performers have invited her to perform in Beijing. She would love to perform for the domestic audience. However, she had a wish that she would not come to Beijing to dance the western productions of Swan Lake or Othello. She longed for the opportunity to perform a ballet with Chinese national characteristics, and to use her many years of performing experience in the West to interpret the most traditional and beautiful storylines. The performance of "Magpie Bridge" was the perfect opportunity for Tan Yuan Yuan to fulfill her long-cherished dream, and the many fans who had been waiting for her to perform finally had the chance to meet the "Queen of the Ballet" she had longed for.
In the 2012 NCPA Dance Festival, Tan Yuan Yuan will once again come to China to perform "The Crossing - Three Women's Dance" with Taiwanese dancer Hsu Fangyi, an Asian disciple of modern dance master Martha Graham, and New York City Ballet's principal performer Ashley Bowder***. In this performance, they integrate the different dance vocabularies of classical ballet, modern ballet and contemporary dance, making a special crossover in the performance, and showing the diverse charms of dancers in different contexts through their distinctive works and dance styles. She is 1.67 meters tall, weighs 47 kilograms, has a crescent-shaped mouth when she smiles, likes to wear old and soft ballet shoes, and walks with a straight back and neck like a swan. This is how Tan Yuanyuan, a Shanghai girl from the San Francisco Ballet, one of the three largest ballet companies in the United States, looks on a regular basis. A few days ago, Tan Yuan Yuan traveled back to Shanghai for the release of her new book, Me and Ballet. The book, which was five years in the making, is like a memoir of the 36-year-old's 25 years of dancing since she flipped a "coin" at age 11 to decide her fate.
As Tan's mother said, Tan Yuan Yuan has been diligent and successful in her ballet journey: she was admitted to the Shanghai Ballet School at the age of 11, won an international award at the age of 14 in Finland, and won her first gold medal at the Fifth International Ballet Competition at the age of 15 in Paris, France. At the age of 18, when most girls are still unaware of the world, Tan Yuan Yuan, who was studying at the Stuttgart Ballet and Dance Academy in Germany, received an invitation to sign with the San Francisco Ballet. In only three years, Tan Yuan Yuan jumped from soloist to principal dancer, and over the past 18 years, Tan Yuan Yuan has performed more than 100 shows a year, starring in almost all the classic ballets, including "Swan Lake," "Giselle," "Othello" and "The Little Mermaid.
After Tan Yuanyuan, there are very few dancers in China who can establish a foothold in the Western ballet world as she did. Often people ask her for the secret, "It may be that I have higher requirements for myself, and it is certainly inseparable from my own hard work." Tan Yuan Yuan explained with a smile, even if she had to hold a press conference that day, she would still practice her "pole" movements in the hotel room where the facilities were not up to par, more or less to maintain her own sense of dance.
"I came into the international ballet world with solid fundamentals, and when I portrayed the characters, the Oriental's unique subtlety would add a lot of color to my performances." In an interview, Tan Yuan Yuan said that ballet is not only an art about technique, but also a delicate blend of movement and emotion, like the combination of yin and yang, and rhythm and staccato. Speaking of how she is different, Tan Yuan Yuan laughs that it is probably because of the strong tension on stage, "We are different from movie actors in that we have to serve 3,000 people on stage. The stage is big, the audience is far away, and the audience can't get what you mean without amplifying your body language."
Injuries in dance are commonplace for ballet dancers. In her book, Tan Yuan Yuan also reveals details of many injuries that she usually keeps coarsely hidden from her parents. For example, when she danced Giselle in 2005, she thought about putting an end to her dancing career due to a dislocated right hip bone, "unable to find the north, very frustrated and upset." In 2010, when she worked with the Hamburg Ballet's Artistic Director John Neumeier on The Little Mermaid, Tan Yuan Yuan also suffered three doses of closed injections due to a toe injury. Fortunately, The Little Mermaid taught Tan Yuan Yuan how to dance with her soul and brought her a turning point in her career, "It prolonged my artistic life." For his part, John Neumeier praised Tan Yuan Yuan highly, "She danced my soul out."
The prime age for ballerinas to dance is usually between 28 and 35, and Tan Yuan Yuan sees "The Little Mermaid" as the time when she was in the best shape of her dancing, "and it's not bad now." "If I hadn't gone to San Francisco, I probably wouldn't be on stage right now; if I hadn't gotten those two injuries, I probably would have retired from the stage." These two injury interludes in turn made Tan Yuan Yuan decide to keep dancing, "I was thinking then, if I can cross the injury line, I'll dance for as long as I can."
What will you do when you stop dancing? "I'll still be doing things that have to do with ballet, with 'beauty'." She says with a straight face, but probably won't let her own kids do ballet again in the future, "unless the child has a talent for it that has to be done. Dancers pay a bitter price behind the surface glamor that few can see." Magpie Bridge stars some of the world's top ballet dancers. Principal dancers Alina Somova and Leonidor Sarafanov of Russia's Mariinsky Theater Ballet and principal dancers of Japan's National Academy of Arts Ballet Iaroslav? Salenger and Rikai Harashima are among the most prestigious dancers in the world of ballet today. Russia's Mariinsky Ballet has a history of more than 200 years, the company's world ballet master Ulanova was once the old generation of leaders of China's very favorite dancers, many times to China for the country's leaders to perform in the world enjoys a high reputation.
Tan Yuanyuan said, "I am very happy to work with the world's top ballet performers this time, their artistic level are admired, but also for a long time I especially hope to be able to perform on the same stage with the ideal partner. The former principal of the Russian Mariinsky Ballet, Ulanova, is my spiritual idol, and I have received a lot of influence and encouragement from them in the course of my ballet studies. When I participated in the International Ballet Competition in France, I was honored to receive the appreciation and full marks from Maestro Ulanova, which was a great spiritual encouragement for me at the age of 15, and the scene is still fresh in my mind. I rehearsed Magpie Bridge with Leonidor Sarafanov, the principal of Russian Mariinsky, for some time in Japan, and it felt great! We were so well coordinated and became more proficient in our inter-dance steps, and I have even higher expectations for the Beijing performance.
Invited by the organizers, Tan Yuanyuan temporarily put aside her rehearsals and came to Beijing in advance to host a "master class" to meet with "Tan's fans" and guide ballet learners. This will be the best opportunity for ballet lovers to witness the superstar's style and have a zero-distance contact with Tan Yuan Yuan.
Tan Yuan Yuan is returning to China to perform, not only to bring back the experience she has accumulated in the United States over the past 12 years, but also to bring the Chinese ballet out. The master class was started with this in mind. Tan Yuan Yuan has a wealth of experience as a principal in top foreign ballet companies, coupled with her unique female sensitivity and delicate and extraordinary expressive power, has conquered the hearts of countless fans. In order to give "Tan fans" the most perfect and deep impression, the organizer will rent the PLA Opera House Amphitheatre as the activity site of the "Master Class". The choice of the PLA Opera House as the venue for the "Master Class" will be as costly and effective as an official performance. Tan Yuan Yuan will be performing wonderful ballet excerpts, and dance fans can invite Yuan Yuan to **** dance with them, or even "point dance", so that Tan Yuan Yuan can perform some of his favorite classic excerpts. Spots are limited, so fans can sign up for the master class by visiting the special section of this website.
Tan Yuanyuan said, "After so many years of dancing Swan Lake and Giselle, I'm most excited to be able to dance a Chinese-themed piece." She said Chinese dancers have proved they can perform the best ballet and be a major player in the world's top ballet companies, but we need to be more than just "the same as everyone else". In fact, people are really impressed by your unique oriental temperament and Chinese flavor. Tan Yuan Yuan is excited about her upcoming Beijing debut: "I am very excited to perform in Beijing for the first time. I hope to give a perfect performance for the audience at my peak." With the tour of Magpie Bridge to Japan, South Korea, Singapore, France, Italy, the United States and other countries, "it is important to bring this beautiful Chinese love story to more countries and make it our own 'Swan Lake'." At the closing ceremony of the fourth China Shanghai International Ballet Competition, Tan Yuanyuan performed a fragment of "Giselle" as a special guest.
In the first half of the performance, Tan Yuan Yuan expressed the heart of an innocent girl in the countryside with her soft dance, confused eyes and light movements. In completing the leap from maiden to lover, Tan Yuan Yuan quickly introduced the audience to the imaginary world of whimsy with her strong and light jumps, sharp and steady spins, and heavy lifting. Each difficult movement was easily accomplished with poetic passion. Tan Yuan Yuan's extraordinary infectious energy made the audience experience an out-of-body experience.
Tan Yuan Yuan said: "I entered the international ballet world with solid basic skills in China, and performing on the same stage with top artists from different countries made me improve very quickly. At the same time the delicate performances unique to the Orient make my creations unique."
Tan Yuanyuan was spotted by a teacher at the Shanghai Ballet School when she was climbing a bamboo pole in an elementary school gym class, but her father, an engineer, wanted his only daughter to become a doctor, so she delayed reporting for work for a year after getting her notice. Later, at her mother's insistence, the family decided on a trade-off with a coin toss. The five-cent coin fell from the air heads up, signifying that the world was about to get a ballet star. The first miracle came in 1992, when Tan Yuan Yuan participated in the Fifth International Dance Competition in Paris, France. To the stage, teachers and students were dumbfounded, in order to facilitate the viewing of the performance of the toes, the European ballet stage are designed to 15 degrees tilt, which has been in the flat dance on the ground of the Chinese performers, is tantamount to pronounced out of the game. The teacher reassured Yuan Yuan, "Just think of it as practice." During the competition, Tan Yuan Yuan cried and did not want to go out because of the huge pain in her knees. In the heat of the moment, the teacher kicked over, and to her surprise, with the power of this kick, Tan Yuanyuan's entrance dance was particularly successful. At the end of the competition, the chairman of the jury, Ulanova, scored full marks and commented, "This is the youngest and most classical acting style I have seen in 20 years, she has a bright future." It was not expected that a hopeless competition would result in Tan Yuan Yuan taking home the gold medal.
When Tan Yuan Yuan won another gold medal at an international competition in Nagoya, Japan, the following year, she was hired as the youngest soloist with the San Francisco Ballet in 1994, crossing the apprenticeship and group dance ladders.
On one performance, the leading lady broke a bone, and to save the day, the director asked Yuan Yuan, "Can you do it?" Tan Yuanyuan took over without half a second's hesitation. Today, recalling the scene, Tan Yuan Yuan is still excited: "It was out of instinct, I had to seize the opportunity." The next day on stage was a huge success, and the major media in San Francisco spoke highly of the unexpected newcomer. From then on, Tan Yuan Yuan became the first Chinese-American principal performer of the three major ballet companies in the United States, and also the youngest principal performer.
San Francisco Ballet's principal Chinese-American dancer, Yuan Yuan Tan, was not only featured on the cover of Pointe, a mainstream American ballet magazine, but her ballet "Othello" was also shown on PBS's American Dance Hall of Fame series throughout the United States.
The U.S. daily World Journal reported that the cover of Pointe magazine not only featured her dancing in a golden crown and costume, but also called her "San Francisco Ballet's Golden Girl". Entitled "A Day in the Life of Yuan Yuan Tan," the magazine provides intimate coverage of her activities throughout the day on March 20, from the morning opening reception at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco to her curtain call at 10:30 p.m. after her performance in the ballet "Don Quixote" to thunderous applause from the audience. There are more than 10 photos in the magazine, with shots of her practicing, standing backstage for her entrance, applying makeup and walking down the street to catch the show, giving a glimpse of the dancer's original beauty throughout the day.
The San Francisco Ballet is ranked among the top three ballet companies in the United States, and its members are top dancers from all over the world. When Yuan Yuan Tan came to the U.S. from Shanghai in 1995 to join the San Francisco Ballet, she was already a "soloist" and rose to the rank of "principal dancer" in just three years. She is the only mainland Chinese-born performer in the company, and the only Chinese-American principal dancer in the three major American ballet companies. In the "American Dance Celebrity Series", PBS broadcast "Othello" in 90 minutes, the Tan Yuan Yuan's exquisite dance skills and unassuming beauty, to promote the vision of the American public, the media around the arts critics believe that this is a rare case of excellence.
Tan Yuan Yuan has been a member of the San Francisco Ballet for 10 years. During those 10 years, she has been busy performing and rehearsing every day, giving all her energy, stamina and ability to the ballet. "In San Francisco, the season is from January to May every year, and I perform more than 100 shows there every year, while the annual European tour is also thunderous, and I perform at least 20 to 30 shows a month. Plus I have to go to Japan and other places to perform, so 365 days count, I'm almost always on stage." However, in the face of the heavy performance load, Tan Yuan Yuan dances and is happy. "If I say it's bitter, it's that I often have to perform 5 or 6 different dance dramas in a week, play 5 or 6 different roles, and switch in a short period of time. That's when I would feel bitter. But once I'm on stage, all that hard work is thrown out the window."
Besides dancing, Yuan Yuan has very little time for spare time, so much so that she, who is a dragon, has not yet had a boyfriend. "It's better to let nature take its course on personal issues." However, Yuan Yuan hopes to show that her other half is not a member of the circle, so that the other person will respect herself a little more, and also respect the art of ballet, which she loves. Despite Tan Yuan Yuan's glory in the ballet world, there will come a day when she will leave the stage, and what will she choose then? "If that day comes, I will engage in some ballet-related work." More than a year ago, Tan Yuanyuan has begun to study painting, design and stage choreography. Perhaps, one day she will do some behind-the-scenes work or open a ballet school. Tan Yuan Yuan said that even though she has a busy performance schedule, she has found time to pursue a bachelor's degree in art at the University of Santa Maria in the United States. Moreover, she intends to complete the four-year program in three years, so in addition to her performances, she has to turn in a grueling 10 pages of homework a week.
Mention of quitting. After a little thought, Tan Yuan Yuan said, "I'm a perfectionist, I'll never dance until the day I can't dance anymore. I'm going to leave at the top of the heap, so to speak."