She was encouraged, because Willy Tsao, a well-known Chinese modern dance choreographer and artistic director with the Beijing Modern Dance Company hailed her as a success "Chinese Isadora Duncan" for her dance "The Little Donkey" at the Fourth Beijing Modern Dance Festival last month.

Huang's three-member "March Dance Studio" was one of 18 non-professional groups that participated in the "Youth Dance Showcase" during the festival, while four years ago only three participated in the event.

Today, the festival, and in particular the "Youth Dance Showcase" event, has intrigued young and amateur dancers across the country.

"I was amazed to see so many good works and they have made great progress," Tsao said.

In previous showcases, there were only a small number of non-professional works and those fell into three categories. One, was academic works by choreographers who had graduated from dance academies and had learned theories and techniques of modern dance.

"From their work, we could clearly see the influence of some renowned choreographers both from home and abroad. They lacked individual spirit and innovative ideas," he said.

The second category included works that borrowed idioms from folk dances or classical Western ballet. These works only used some common movements or techniques of modern dance to make up a traditional concept.

Tsao said what he liked the most were the original works by dancers who have not received any professional training.

"Those works have caught the soul and root of modern dance, which rebel against the rigid formalism and superficiality of classical academic ballet and inspire audiences with a new awareness of inner or outer realities," said Tsao.

He is especially satisfied this year as creative works by students dominated the show.

"Modern dance is easily accepted and developed among young people because the dances offer them a chance to give free reign to express themselves," said Tsao.

"As a college student, trying modern dance does not mean you should be a dancer in the future," Tsao said. "You could be a dancer, you could also be a theorist of dance, a critic of modern society, culture or education, the point is you develop the habit to think."

Ou Jianping, a veteran dance critic as well as the director of Foreign Dance Studies under the National Arts Academy of China, shared his views and added, "Young non-professional dancers should display their advantage, the innovative and individual inspiration, instead of pursuing difficult techniques."

"Modern dance has broken some of the old rules which require dancers to be thin and tall and eight years training," he said. "Everybody who likes dance and wants to dance could try modern dance."

The progress of this year's show also displays varied emotions and thoughts expressed throughout the works.

Previously, non-professional dancers showed a vague and narrow view of modern dance. They tended to use strange and difficult body movements to express their own feelings, usually frustration and stress.

But Tsao and Ou stress that modern dance has no fixed form. The dances could also express people's love, happiness or imagination.

That was the reason why Huang Ying received Tsao's special praise in "The Little Donkey," because she showed how a little girl plays with a stubborn but lovely donkey. Huang got her inspiration from a nursery rhyme she remembered from her childhood.

"Huang delighted audiences by baring her soul in her free and natural movements. On stage, she skips, runs, jumps, leaps, tosses with the free-flowing costumes, with bare feet and loose hair, she looks like Duncan really," Tsao grinned with delight.

"We Are Insane" performed by students from Tianjin Normal University also impressed audiences with their innovative expression. Each dancer performed "contact improvisation," a trendy technique to develop modern dance, to depict people's restlessness as they are driven mad by the heavy pressure of modern society.

"Contemporary Pain" choreographed and performed by Lian Guodong, an undergraduate from Capital Normal University, stretched for half an hour, but it has an agreeable aftertaste.

"Empty Dance Studio" composed of two dancers who graduated from the Beijing Academy of Dance, showed more advanced artistic quality, making it a modern theatrical production rather than a dance.

Tsao pointed out that some dances were not very mature in their artistic creation, and others lacked experience in performing on stage. Except in some big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, people who love or engage in modern dance do not have a broad base of fans. There is nowhere for them to dance.

Those who come from remote places like Huang could hardly conceal their excitement to be at the annual festival.

"They came to the festival as pilgrims, for in their towns, it is difficult to get the latest information on modern dance, which limits their vision," Ou said.

Jiang Su'ni, a dance teacher with Changde Normal University in Central China's Hunan Province, studied dance at the Beijing Academy of Dance for three years.

She said: "Whenever I come to Beijing, I buy lots of videos to take back to show my students. My colleagues and I are fascinated by the works on the videos, but the video shows still cannot compare with the live shows.

"In Changde, however, we have few such live dance shows."

Huang Ying has also been struggling with loneliness. Two years ago, she resigned from her job in a local bank, to travel to Beijing to attend a three-month training course for amateurs at the Beijing Academy of Dance.

However, she could not find a job when she returned home.

She tried to teach what she had learned from Beijing in the local schools and communities. Yet people there did not want to learn her dances but suggested she teach "street dance" or "parapara dance," which they thought to be modern dance.

"I knew I could earn money by teaching popular dances, but I did not want to deceive them and myself," she said. So she has to lead a life with temporary work but nevertheless continues to dance.

With encouragement from Tsao and other people she met during the festival, Huang believes that she can overcome all the difficulties as long as she keeps going and does not give up.

(China Daily June 18, 2002)