[Reported by Liu Jun and Bai Yijiao from China News] In the evening at the end of June, the village near the Fenghuangling Scenic Spot in Beijing was surprisingly quiet.
A small courtyard has been neatly and delicately managed, and the furnishings in the house are simple and full of ethnic characteristics: handmade copper teapots, tapestries with beautiful patterns... This is the new home of Maize, a dance teacher at the Minzu University of China.
This handsome young man in a white shirt and smiling face is the first Xinjiang man to win a gold medal in a national dance competition.
On the same day, facing the reporter of "China News", Maize shared his experience of learning dance, and also outlined the inheritance path of dance culture of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
Corn extraction (photo courtesy of the interviewee/reported by China News)
Everyone who came to Beijing to study art and saw everyone shouted "Hello, Mr. Wang"
It is said that the most important thing to learn dance is boygong, but Maize only began to receive formal instruction at the "old age" of 12 years old.
Before that, he was a "crazy" child who "dances when he can walk, and sings when he speaks." No matter what the occasion, as long as the music is played, he will twist his body to the beat.
The larger the audience, the more vigorous the dance.
In 1999, the People's Liberation Army Art College (now the Military Culture College of the National Defense University) went to Xinjiang to recruit students. More than 3,000 people signed up, and there were only 30 places.
The 12-year-old corn was the lucky one, and squeezed into the train bound for Beijing.
On the train, he heard Han children greeting "Mr. Wang is good". He thought that the teacher was called "Mr. Wang is good" in Chinese, so he secretly wrote it down.
When he arrived at the school, he warmly greeted every teacher who approached him, "Hello, Mr. Wang", making the teachers bewildered.
It was only later that he learned that the Han surnames were completely different from the Uyghur names, and he mistakenly regarded "Hello, Teacher Wang" as a fixed collocation of polite expressions.
This was a joke in the school for a while.
For smoother communication, the school has specially equipped Uyghur children with language teachers, allowing them to learn from the simplest "a, o, e", while Han children learn the courses of junior high school, which makes Maize improve Very unconvinced: they are all of the same age, why can't I learn "the same people" like them?
After repeated requests, he was transferred to the class of Han students in the second year. After studying hard, he was soon able to communicate with Han students.
In the professional class, the gap between corn mentions at the beginning is also obvious.
When I first entered the school gate, those students who had dance foundation had already practiced the horizontal cross and vertical cross very well, which made Maiti, who could cry in pain, envious.
The competitive spirit in his bones came again. He slept with his legs tied and squatted at night. When he woke up, his legs were numb. He insisted on this for a few weeks, tying himself to bed every day, and then woke up in pain, gritted his teeth Overcome the softness.
Maize quickly became a "good seedling" in the eyes of the teacher.
He secretly set a "5-year plan" for himself - in the 5 years of military art, he will win the Oscar "Tao Li Cup" in the Chinese dance industry.
In 2003, Maize got his wish and won the first prize in the 7th "Peach and Plum Cup" Dance Competition in the National Folk Dance Boys' Group with "A Lovely Rose".
This is also the first time for Uyghurs to stand on the top podium of a national dance competition.
Since then, he has successively won the first prize in the CCTV Dance Competition and the Seoul International Dance Competition in South Korea; in 2006, Maize participated in the "Tao Li Cup" competition for the second time, and once again won the first prize in his pocket... He left home at the age of 12. The Uyghur teenagers who wandered in Beijing finally broke into their own world in the dance world.
Cornti (the man in black in the front row) is teaching a dance class.
(Photo courtesy of the respondent/Reported by China News)
Bold innovation "think about why people dance first"
In 2019, Maize retired from the Zongzheng Song and Dance Troupe and became a teacher at the Dance School of Minzu University of China.
From the perspective of teaching, he re-examined the dance that he has danced for so many years, and he has a new understanding.
For example, Uyghur dance has a lot of physical requirements and is more restrictive, and it is easy to "lock up" the body.
Today's young people like freedom, individuality, and modern dance.
Can the Uyghur dance occasionally "explode" and ignite on the premise of maintaining the national characteristics?
He often said to students: "Don't think about how to dance the 'Uyghur dance', just think about how people dance."
Innovation will inevitably lead to controversy, but corn mentions that there will be progress when there is controversy.
Just like Wang Luobin, the "King of Western Songs", who adapted Xinjiang folk songs at the beginning, there are many different voices in the outside world, but "if there is no teacher Wang Luobin's persistence and creation, we will lose many good songs now!"
Cornti often encourages students to have a brave heart, be bold and innovative, and not be afraid to make mistakes.
He has also experienced controversial moments. When he danced "Panzi Dance", he made a lot of innovations in interpretation, which also attracted some criticism at that time.
"But after that performance, people started to follow suit."
Having said this, Maeti smiled, "I think this is the only way to cross between the times, and someone has to take the lead in taking this step."
Corn Ti (the one in black in the middle) and the students.
(Photo courtesy of the respondent/Reported by China News)
Folk digging for treasure "turns old stuff into cool"
Every holiday, Maize will go to various places to do field research.
He has been to Inner Mongolia. On the vast grassland, yurts are scattered everywhere. At that moment, he suddenly understood the hidden background behind the unrestrained Mongolian dance - loneliness.
This is why Mongolian dance always gives people a warm human touch.
"Only by understanding the cultural heritage of various ethnic groups can the expression in dance move people." He went to Wengding Ancient Village in Yunnan and found that the girls of the Wa ethnic group were particularly shy and reserved, not as hot as the hair-twist dance of the Wa ethnic group. He also went to the Northeast to explore the relationship between the Korean dance and the dance of the Western Regions... These experiences of collecting styles made Maize feel the close cultural relationship between various ethnic groups, and also realized the profound significance of these cultural relationships mapped to body movements.
In the next step, what he most wants to do is to carefully dig out the "good things" in the dances of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and "turn the old things into cool ones".
Maize is very confident, "It's like a tree. Without roots, the tree will fall quickly; if it has roots, it's meaningless if it doesn't grow."
All the folk dances that can be widely circulated among the people are innovated, grafted and integrated on the basis of maintaining the foundation.
"Just like teacher Yang Liping's peacock dance, it is derived from the dance of the Dai people, and on this basis, many new dance elements have been added, so everyone generally thinks this dance is very novel and beautiful. So don't limit yourself, don't give dance Only by setting limits can we have the opportunity to see a wider world.”
Dance out of school regardless of professional and amateur
In addition to teaching students to dance in professional colleges, Maize also walked out of the campus and into the "square dance" group.
"Because of the strong sense of rhythm and the simple steps of Uyghur dance, many square dance lovers are willing to dance." In Maize's view, dance is not divided into professional and amateur, as long as it comes from the love of the heart, and the desire to dance and dance from the heart The dance that comes out will have a soul.
At first, Maeti walked into the square dance line out of curiosity.
After learning about it, he found that the "dancers" in these squares had no less dedication and enthusiasm for dancing than a professional dancer, which moved him deeply.
What dance brings to this group is exactly the meaning of dance—making people happy and comforting.
Therefore, Maize decided to provide a series of professional and systematic teaching for this group, so that they can also have the opportunity to experience professional training and guidance at this age, and no longer wear the clothes of Zhangguan and Lidai, and play irrelevant music.
This is another life plan of Maize, who likes to make "five-year plans": to make square dancing a field of inheriting Chinese culture, and let the Chinese people speak for their own culture.
【Biography】
Maize Ti, associate professor of Minzu University of China, young dancer, graduated from the PLA Academy of Arts, worked in the former General Political Song and Dance Troupe, won 7 gold medals in domestic and foreign dance competitions and won the second-class merit 2 times and the third-class merit 2 times , participated in major performances at home and abroad for many times and appeared on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala several times.
His representative works include "You Beautiful My Life" and "Singing Wings".