Dance veteran leads new initiative for Chinese ballet

Zhao Ruheng will never forget her trip to Hong Kong in 1980, when she participated in a summer workshop organized by the Royal Academy of Dance.

For Zhao, dance director of the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing and former president of National Ballet of China, the trip was her first encounter with the UK-based examination board, one of the world's most influential dance education and training organizations with a focus on classical ballet. The experience was the beginning of a new chapter in Zhao's career.

She was not only given an English name, Sonia, by one of the ballet teachers, Jean Bedells, whose mother Phyllis Bedells was one of RAD's founding members, but she was also inspired by the teaching methods of RAD.

Ever since that trip, Zhao has been using the philosophy of RAD to influence Chinese ballet dancers. When she was president of the National Ballet of China in 1995 she used RAD methods to train dancers.

On March 19, Zhao, who is now the artistic consultant of Morning Star Ballet, a Beijing-based ballet educational organization, announced the official arrival of RAD on the Chinese mainland.

Morning Star Ballet, RAD's first authorized organization on the Chinese mainland, will offer both non-vocational and vocational training. Children's graded courses and RAD teacher certificate programs are all based on the RAD examination and qualification system.

"I gained a new perspective about ballet from RAD, especially the understanding of the mechanics of muscles, bones and joints with applications in a scientific way," says Zhao, 71. "I can still remember dancing while holding the music score. The music was written for child dancers and it was quite a lot of fun."

She says growing numbers of Chinese parents are beginning to value arts education, and dance classes for young children are becoming more popular. Zhao also enjoys watching children learning and performing ballet, who are, she says, "dynamic, noisy and passionate".

"I believe that there are no bad students, only bad teachers. The wrong teaching methods can damage children's health. I hope that more people in China will learn the joy of dancing like I did with RAD," she says.

In 2020, RAD will celebrate its 100 years of operation. The organization has more than 16,000 members in 80 countries.

"We've seen that the dance training market in China has hugely increased in the past few years. RAD has a long tradition of offering quality dance classes in an inspirational and nurturing environment, where students are inspired to develop their skills, which will give them a fresh experience of learning dance," Luke Rittne, chief executive of RAD, says.

For Zhao, who joined National Ballet of China on its founding in 1959, her determination to introduce RAD to the mainland is related to her passion for developing original Chinese ballet.

She notes that the classic Chinese ballet, The Red Detachment of Women, has recently celebrated its 50th anniversary and toured around the country. She says the anniversary celebrates a creative peak of original Chinese ballet but also serves as a reminder of the need to create new original Chinese ballet.

"China's own ballet works were developed with influences from different ballet styles, especially early training from Russian ballet teachers in the 1950s. When I was young, I was eager to learn more from different choreographers and teachers," Zhao says. "Today, we talk a lot about using ballet language, the Western art form, to tell Chinese stories. A crucial thing is to broaden the vision of our ballet dancers with new knowledge and different perspectives."

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn