Chinese dancer explores art by reading

Chinese dancer-choreographer Liu Yan's onstage journey started when she was a little girl.

At age 10, Liu stood out among her peers and was enrolled in the middle school affiliated to the Beijing Dance Academy. Before she left her hometown in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, her father, who is a judge, told Liu to develop more interests like reading rather than a singular passion, dancing.

"My parents took turns taking long train rides to Beijing to be with me during weekends back then. When my father came to Beijing, he would take me to the National Library of China near the Beijing Dance Academy," says Liu. "We also read together and exchanged ideas about books."

One of the books they read then was Cheng Yu Ci Dian (Dictionary of Chinese Idioms), which inspired Liu.

"You may think reading a dictionary is boring but it's not true. Chinese language is rich in idioms, representing thousands of years of wisdom and experience. There are lots of small and interesting stories, which introduce and explain the idioms. They are full of imagination. The stories feature various people like emperors and generals, as well as animals, mythical creatures, adventures, love stories and other elements relevant to the people of the time," says Liu.

Now, she reads the book for fun and likes to share what she has learned. "It allows you to look back at ancient China and understand the people and culture that gave birth to the idioms."

Known for her solid techniques and expressive interpretation of Chinese classical dance, Liu was enrolled in the Beijing Dance Academy at age 18. She has won many dance competitions in China and is considered one of the country's top Chinese classical dancers.

Despite her busy schedule of taking classes, training and doing rehearsals, Liu has kept the habit of reading, even after an accident in 2008, when she severely injured her vertebrae during a rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Beijing that year. The accident left her paralyzed below the waist, and she had to bid farewell to the stage and adjust to life in a wheelchair.

"I've developed a regular daily routine that starts by reading in the morning before I go the gym," says Liu, adding that she reads poems, both traditional and contemporary.

After she somewhat recovered from the accident, Liu started to push the boundaries by researching hand movements in dance, which has allowed her to "continue to dance in a different way".

She started to pursue her doctoral degree at the Chinese National Academy of Arts in 2010 and focused on her research on hand movements in dancing. In 2014, she published a book on hand movements in Peking opera, a traditional art form, with a history of more than 200 years that was listed by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2010.

"I read lots of books about hand gestures in Chinese dance," says Liu, who published her first book, Dance With Hands, in 2014, focusing on Peking Opera.

She also studied about religion with Zheng Xiaoyun, director and research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Religions. In 2021, Liu published her second book, Impression of Hands, with a focus on the dancing postures seen on the murals of Mogao Grottoes, the Buddhist art trove in Dunhuang, Gansu province. She says the research not only allowed her to explore more about dance but also taught her to appreciate traditional culture, which, like Cheng Yu Ci Dian, plays an important role in contemporary life in China.

Liu has put her research into choreography as well. She launched her dance studio in 2019. In the summer of 2021, she staged her debut directorial dance drama, Jing Yan, which featured colleagues from the Beijing Dance Academy.

"Books can literally change your life. Reading can help you learn and experience," says Liu, adding that she reads digital books every day, especially when she spends time alone.

Among the books she likes are those by Chinese scholar Ji Xianlin (1911-2009), who wrote on Buddhism and traditional culture.

"His thoughts are like an encyclopedia, which can make people wise, and while written in plain words, like talking to friends, his life wisdom influences me," says Liu.