School of body rock

Tap Dance King Liang Yi from the documentary Burning Dreams directed by Wayne Peng has inspired the passion of many young dancers. Peng is a famous advertising director who came from Taiwan Province and now works in Shanghai. His artful film is about a dance school in Shanghai where the students are encouraged to realize their dreams despite the harsh reality.

Three characters - the dancer-and-anchorwoman Yang Yang, her mentor Liang Yi, and her colleague Li Chuan in the Dreams 52 Dance School - share the same passion for dance, but with different beliefs and approaches to this art. So there are conflicts reflecting the changing dynamics of their times. It is a documentary about tap dancing and jazz, mingled with Shanghai's past and present.

Liang Yi is a 70-something, self-taught dance teacher who expects his students to achieve the dreams he couldn't: to be like Gene Kelly. At the Shanghai Dreams 52 School, Liang toils and torments, inspiring aspirants such as his early student Yang Yang, a young woman who wants stardom.

Burning Dream, shot in black and white, is a portrait of an unorthodox slice of Shanghai life.

(China Daily 09/19/2007 page20)