One life - one dream
Photo by Jared Martin
Interview with Yu Wei
by Shih-Ming Li Chang, Assistant Professor of the Theatre and Dance Department of Wittenberg University Springfield, OH
Wei
How did you first start when you arrived in the US? Did you have any connections? How did you promote yourself?
When I came to the US, I didn’t have any connections and little language. I was relying on a Chinese way to
learn the dance world in America, which is to let people know me by seeing my dance. My husband, (Film artist Jared Martin) was an enormous help in finding me an agent. But I didn’t feel right having him spend that much money on me, so I released the agent and set out on my own. I went to see many, many dance performances in Philadelphia and New York so that I could learn how to present my work in the US. I also did many volunteer performances during festivals and holidays. I was very confident in my own dances, and the volunteer work allowed people to get to know me. Without the language, I went to a presenter’s conference--the Midwest Arts Conference in Columbus Ohio--to learn how to present myself. This is how you and I met, Shih-Ming! Because I had already created the Yu Wei Dance Collection while I was in China, I had an established repertoire of 7 pieces. Now I have 19 dances in my Collection, augmented by video intervals that my husband created to precede each piece and prepare the audience. Some of the clips explain how my life was in China, and some are preludes to introduce stories relevant to the dances.
One organization that has played a very important role in my life is Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour. Since the first time I applied to this organization in 2004, I have been continually performing through their auspices. The PPAT prints three thousand copies of their artists’ catalog that is sent each year to presenters nation-wide which is great publicity. More and more people have invited me to perform for them because I am easy to work with and serious about my art. Also audiences love my work, so I have many opportunities to perform. I have been invited to many museums, schools, and other such venues. Through the prestigious magazines produced by the museums, large images of my work have made me even more visible. I was invited to perform in the Longwood Gardens (a major performance center in PA) and after this event, an agent came to find me (instead of the other way around!). Since then, this agent has managed and represented my work nation-wide, leading my tour performance career to a professional standard in the US. I came to realize that in the US you have to have a professional agent. It is a whole different business, because only people with the right connections can promote you effectively.
My dance collection is a solo dance collection. "Solo dance does not mean one person dancing, but a focus on a particular aspect of the dance” - Zhang Ke. Solo dance is one of the most beautiful and powerful dance forms, it has all the aesthetic elements as other dance forms, but in a different way it is more personal. I love solo dance and like to be working quietly and deeply. Solo dance collection is a rare art form in the performing world, but I love the challenge!
I came to America in 2000 and living in Philadelphia
What is dance to you?
To answer that question, I want to talk a bit about a very special dance master, Cheng Yun 程云--China's great playwright, composer, director, aesthetician, historian, and calligrapher. He was head of the China Central Song and Dance Troupe, and of the Wuhan Municipal Propaganda Department. Once, he gave a speech for the Wuhan Song and Dance Theatre and said: "What is dance? Many people engage in a lifetime of dance but are not even clear about what dance is; the door they have entered does not lead to true dance.”
His words resonated for me, and since then I am always asking myself, “What is dance? Did I travel on the right road of dance? Did I enter the right door?” As a dance artist, if I do not know what dance is, that means I don’t know what I have been doing.
Dance is the body art and it has the special body language and skills - but dance is not technique alone, it is not gymnastics or acrobatics. Dance is a primary cultural expression. Dance is rooted in its nation, people, tradition, geography and history. A good dance can let the audience learn about a nation and its people. A good dance can inspire and encourage people, and thrill the heart. A good dance is interesting and beautiful to watch and meaningful to contemplate at the same time. A good dance not only stimulates the audience’s eyes, but also refreshes their soul. A good dance will leave something behind for the audience to carry back to their homes that they will remember for a very long time.
Dance for me means my life and joy, dance is my nature and I am lucky to be chosen by dance. The work of creating dance is like a work of science that involves my entire life. Anytime and everywhere my mind is filled with the contemplation of dance. I like to have two sets of eyes to watch my working--one is the dancer other is the audience. I do care about the feelings my audience will have, because my dance is not for self-expressing but for sharing. The interaction between the dance and the audience is the great work--that is the artistry of dance. The artistry is the life of dance and its also the dancer’s art life.
I say art is a product of human spiritual life. Dance is one of many art forms; dance is the body's performance art. Dance is the oldest art, the mother to all art forms, yet it is forever young. Dance is a living poem, painting and moving music, fused into one. Dance is the crystallization of life; the soul of flowers; the child of nature. Dance is life and passion; dance is the flame of motion. Dance has its own rule, its own identity. Dance is honest. Dance is pure. Dance can be cruel. Dance is profound. Dance is cultural. Dance to me is the most beautiful art. I often ask myself: What is dance? Why do I dance? How do I dance? Because dance renews my heart.
Dance for me is not a sudden outbreak of expression. It is a life accumulation of experience and meaning. You have to be honest to what you feel and observe and experience. You must use your heart to taste every bit of life. Dance is pure so you should be sincere. Dance is cultural, not just the use of some movements or superficial aspects, but its content, the deep sensation of its underlying meaning and power that are rooted to nation and people.
Dance is not just the body movements or an explanation of music; dance is not the self-centered mind or technical skills; dance is not about the makeup or costumes. Dance is the human life spirit, feeling, culture and beauty that we all can share through this art. Dance is the unique and also universal art form. People may not understand all the language that is spoken, but good dance can let all the people in the world understand and love the dance.
Dance to me is the deepest art form and it is a responsibility. The culture and life experience must be tapped carefully, over time, to inspire the shape and content of dance. Why? Like boiling water, the heat builds until finally the pressure will thrust the lid from the pot. Without the accumulation through time, it is difficult to find the breaking point. But the breaking point--the flash point--can be inspired by the music, inspired by a painting or an image. There can be many different points of inspiration that let the dance leap to fruition. However, the process of accumulation, the building pressure--that is what we all have in common. It is the accumulation of life, of trials and triumphs, and all the feelings that we experience. That is why dance is emotional--it is poetry, not prose. Dance is a passion, a torrent, not a slow, pre-set form. Something like tai chi is not stirring in the same way. Dance culture is different from sports--those are a game. To choreograph the way you play a game would be to compile a dance through technical means, then give it some ornamentation. It might be well crafted in its form, but still largely focused on the technical. But art is culture, and further, it is deep and wide. You can use different ways to create. Often music is my starting point.
Have my body rest
Your daily life is spent preparing yourself for the moment of inspiration, of readiness to come?
The process for me to create a dance is very natural, but like pregnancy it needs time and patience. If you force it to a premature birth, it will not be ready, will not be fully formed enough to survive. The goal for me to create dance is not about the number of pieces, but rather the quality, the new feeling that comes to me and how the dance would be different from my past work. If the dance is good it will surely be loved by my audience. To be creative in life, to be true to my heart in life and to myself, I must use fresh eyes to see and perceive things--new inspiration, new imagination, and the new idea. A new dance will never stop emerging.
Beautiful nature inspires me in life and dance
Photo by Jared Martin
What kind of training background do you have and how do you use it?
I had six years of very strict training in ballet, Chinese classical, folk, acrobatics, ethnic dance and opera movements, and also modern dance. All of these studies gave me the vast knowledge for my dance career and not only taught me how to dance, but how to use my body when I create a dance. We Chinese have a saying that to move from the realm of necessity into the realm of freedom takes a very long time. The realm of necessity is that you train every morning, do somersaults, rehearse, be disciplined; one by one in the mirror is discipline, and everything is specified. But if a person all day long lives precisely according to specifications they will be like a puppet. People say dance--or any art--is about genius. But we all know the end is 99% physical discipline plus 1% genius. Some people are talented, some people are inspired, but genius cannot succeed without hard work and discipline. I want to say that dance is an honest art--honest to life and to life experience. For example the “Ocean” dance was created out of my experience of seeing the ocean for the first time. When I created the dance I was not thinking ‘what kind of technique should I use?’ but ‘what is the strongest feeling that the Ocean is giving to me?’ The mother of the world! Yes, that is the feeling I want to create with this dance!
I listened the music (composed by Pachelbel) over and over again and my body was moved by the feelings it created. Yes, there was dance structure knowledge, technical language... but feeling is the leader of dance. All the movements came together only under this specific feeling and of this specific dance--a dance that is unique and different from others of my dances.
When you have had years of thoughtful, hard work, you come to a time when you will leap in to a new dance world of your own, into the kingdom of freedom. When I perform I feel the stage becomes my own world where every moment of my dancing is a pure joy of sharing with my lovely audience.
I could not without stop the car to dancing at the beautiful nature, Rocky Mountain, CO
So your experience of the ocean, when you created this dance, you did not care what form you used to create the dance?
No, I can go with the music wherever it takes me. In my dances, music is my river or else I choose the music first. I am the fish, I am the life and host. I do not dance for the movement to explain or to fill up a musical phrase, but to use the music as my feeling’s background and support for the mood of dance. Sometimes I dance the quicker moments in the slow music rhythms or the opposite; sometimes I ride on music and then break from it. Music cannot be like a rope to tie you up and limit you. The dance forms, all of the technical knowledge that I have learned are like the river that gives me a place to swim joyfully or the wings that allow me to fly freely.
The river flows to the wide sea that is like a mother and can hold anything. Even if you throw a massive stone into the sea, it will absorb it, its capacity is boundless. The sea is pregnant with all life, conceived of the earth. The heavens are like the sea, and the land is like the sea, because they are so huge, endless in what they can take in. All nature is like the sea. In their presence, people feel small, like a child floating on a wave. We are embraced by the boundless mother earth. I always praise the waves--they feel like a cradle, like a mother's nurturing arms. And the rhythm of the waves is like the waltz, so much a dance. But if you let the audience feel they are watching a dance, then you have not really reached them. I want to make the audience feel the sea as their own experience, to call up in them the feeling of dancing with me. My sense of true beauty is this encompassing resonance where the audience is pulled, fully into the realm of the dance with me, to build up the dance’s artistry together. The audience will not fall asleep. For example, when I dance “Tears,” the audience truly feels the sense of yearning and loss of a loved one, becomes enmeshed in the feelings of the dance. I know this because I can feel the echo of their emotions when I am dancing. It is a truly beautiful experience to share so fully. If there were no audience, or if the audience were not interested in your dance, the whole purpose and meaning for dance--the sharing of beauty--would be lost.
What is dance? How do I dance...
Photo by Jared Martin
You are not technically a Chinese dance choreographer, even though the material you use might be Chinese. Sometimes the costume, the music and the movement vocabulary are all Chinese, but sometimes not. How do you think the audience sees you?
From my point of view, the most important thing in creating a dance is the artistic results. The audience is the judge. I don’t care about the style or forms. It doesn’t matter if something is strictly Chinese or Western or a mix... the important thing is how you use the elements to create THIS dance. The beauty, I mean, is the artistry. I am a Chinese dancer, I choose to use elements of Chinese culture and technique-this is my advantage. I observe everything from what I have studied--the ballet, the modern, the Chinese classical, folk and ethnic dances; the poem, the music, a life memory or a strong emotion... The key is the connection or the transition, which is an artistic way to put all the elements together to create a dance. People love beauty. When the audience comes to the theater to see dance, what they care about most is how the dance is performed and what is the final feeling they will receive. For Chinese dance, the audience will want more, which is a distinctive beauty that has a freshness and difference from the West.
I live in Philadelphia, a city with many opportunities to see dance performances from around the world. I love to go to the theater and it is my job to see and to learn. I love to sit in the audience to experience both sides of the performance. I have had all the feelings: great enjoyment, satisfaction; dissatisfaction, displeasure. I realized that performance not only could bring a great joy to the audience, but also could torture them. The audience spends their money and time to come to the theater and they have to accept whatever the artists give to them. Good or not good, they have to sit quietly watching and are unable to leave in the middle of the dance. If an unpleasant dance is very long the torture increases. The audience does not always have a good experience when they come to the theater.
Dance is the art of our body language, which is a universal and the most intimate language; an art language that has a unique beauty and power no other art forms can compare with. What is dance? How am I dancing? It is an old and new question that I always want to ask and answer for myself as long as I am dancing.
Shih-Ming Li Chang came from Taiwan. She found me on the Internet and has invited me to OH a couple of times for workshops and performances, We are become good friends. The picture is at her office in Wittenberg University, OH