Last night, I was invited by Tan Yuan Yuan, the prima ballerina of the San Francisco Ballet to dinner to celebrate her father's birthday.  It was a warm evening
attended by close family members, her Shanghai Ballet Teacher Lin Mei Fang林美芳.the director of the Shanghai Dance School where she studied ballet, a lot of good friends and big fans of hers.  My friend Shelley Lim has been a huge fan.  She talks about Yuan Yuan all the time to me.  I was very happy to be there.

Yuan Yuan is in Shanghai because the San Francisco Ballet toured Shanghai and Beijing.  The trip costed one million dollars, but because she has so many fans in china, from China they raised 500,000 or so dollars.  The rest raised in San Francisco.  Her Chinese fans went crazy for her.
Being a ballet dancer is a very tough job.  It is physically hard work. Her teacher Ms. Lin who hand-picked and also trained my model Du Juan said that when dancers get hurt, they have to inject cortezone in order to endure that pain so they can continue to dance.  The pain they suffer must be enormous.  When I was small, iI took some ballet classes.  But by the time I started with toe shoes, I could not take it. I was crying all the time.  it was SOOOO painful.  That is the reason I call this "a cruel art!" 
In a recent TV interview the host asked Yuan Yuan's father if he was proud of his daughter, he said yes, but I wish I did not encourage her to go into Ballet as a business.  It is such a hard and difficult business.  Each time she jumps on stage, his heart hurts.  I heard some amazing stories as to how hard the family supported her studies.  Her mother was the backbone.  She was there through thick and thin with Yuan Yuan.  Most great stars are created with encouraging family support,  families that sacrifice a lot for them.  However the real thing here is her  talents. She has to practise hours and hours a day.   God has given her something more than others.  With hard work, she brings these god-given something so the world can see and enjoy. 

Our Yuan Yuan is a beautiful girl.  Thin, but pretty.  Her posture and movements are  very gentle and elegant.  She is our Chinese Princess.

Being a ballerina, one has to be born with flexibility and ideal proportions. The longer the limbs, the prettier the posture.  She also must have the  ability to ACT dramatically and she should have a beautiful face and arched feet. Some people say that the look of the feet is more important than the face!   Ms. Lin said Yuan Yuan's beautiful arched feet were created through a lot of practice. All these elements are important for a dancer to be successful, however, hard work is the most important with her ability to endure a lot of hardship. 
 
Dancers are trained to anticipate so they would not fall on stage or under perform in a dance with difficult techniques.  Yuan Yuan  is accustomed to anticipate her hardship. She is accustomed to over practicd  to prevent any possible mishaps on stage. She had great pain from foot injuries while dancing in Shanghai with the San Francisco Ballet last week.   The Artistic Director from SF Ballet  commented that Yuan Yuan's  mind helped her to  overcome her physical pain.   Her appearance in Swan Lake was a triumph.

 

 

 

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