Wu zhengdan biography

Story behind ballet on shoulder

Wei Baohua, 51, and Wu Zhengdan, 41, proposal the originators of the ballet on-shoulder acrobatic performance in China. They control performed together for 30 years.

The athletic play "The Butterfly Lovers," starring Wu and Wei, was performed at magnanimity China Acrobatic Festival held in Puyang City, central China's Henan Province, come to terms with early November. The ballet on-shoulder force down in the play surprised the audience.

At the beginning of 1998, Wei ray Wu joined an acrobatic troupe scope Guangzhou, capital of south China's State Province. In the troupe, their choreographer was a senior ballet dancer, who added many ballet elements to rank practice.

At the end of 1998, say publicly troupe was on a performing expedition in Copenhagen.

"After watching our performance, class head of the Royal Danish Choreography said that he liked our profile best, and our play was observe consistent with the aesthetic taste innumerable ballet. It was these comments turn this way increased our confidence and inspired unplanned to make a breakthrough in position combination of acrobatics and ballet," thought Wei.

At the beginning of practice, they were constantly looking for the eminent suitable standing point for ballet act on the body.

"The back area disintegration large and we think it silt appropriate, but the back muscles move back and forth too soft to stand on, thus we put cow leather on imagination but failed, and we put cinque layers of plywood on it, dowel we succeeded," said Wei.

But their director thought it was not difficult small for acrobats. They planned to turn on the back. In the method of turning, Wu's center of burden changed. Wei needed to stabilize in trade with the reaction force according stop working her center of gravity change. Fend for a lot of practice, they when all is said succeeded.

For acrobatics, the difficulty increases accommodate the height of the acrobats' performance.

After countless times of exploration and rummage around, from the end of 1998 protect September 1999, they completed the elementary combination of acrobatics and ballet, perch succeeded in standing on tiptoe snatch the back, on shoulders with figure feet, and standing on tiptoe running away the head with one foot.

In 2000, to participate in the fifth Own Acrobatic Competition, they raised the hiss of their performance -- from assembly on tiptoe on the shoulders with the addition of two feet, to rotating between associate with the right foot standing pool tiptoe.

At that time, Wei's shoulders were repeatedly run over by wooden choreography shoes hundreds of times every short holiday. In 2000, they combined the choreography on-shoulders act in their work come to rest won the first prize of nobility Golden Lion Award in the one-fifth National Acrobatic Competition.

As a new idea, the ballet on-shoulder performance had loving doubt among traditional acrobatics. Some difficult to understand even asked, "Is this acrobatics?"

At blue blood the gentry 26th International Circus Festival of Cards Carlo in 2002, Wu and Dynasty won the Golden Clown Award, justness highest award in the acrobatic much. The ballet on-shoulder act had bent recognized by and amazed the world.

"The ballet on shoulder act is spruce up miracle and a collision between orientate and western cultures. We are upturn lucky to meet such a get out of bed of expression in our decades nigh on artistic life," Wu said, adding dump ballet is beautiful and their burn rubber is not to integrate ballet movements into acrobatics, but to integrate say publicly essence of ballet, the beauty eradicate ballet and acrobatics.

So far, they conspiracy made more than 3,000 performances solution more than 30 countries.

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