BMW shows its 'JOY' by joining hands with renowned dancer from Yunnan

When Yang Liping was a little girl, her grandmother once drew an eye on her palm, telling her that the hands are connected to the heart.

"When you grow up, you will learn to see the world with your heart," she told her granddaughter.

The young girl would go on to become the nation's best-known folk dancer.

Now 54 years old, Yang was born to a farming family from the Bai ethnic group in Eryuan county, Yunnan province. She said that eye remained with her as she "came to witness how trees grow, how rivers flow, how clouds drift and how vapor condenses into dew".

But more than just an observer, she is dedicated to sharing the beauty she sees.

In this year's CCTV Spring Festival evening gala, her folk dance performance Love of Peacocks captivated millions of Chinese TV viewers.

It was actually 26 years after she first performed her iconic dance of the peacock, a totem of the Bai people, on national TV, but this year's viewers saw that time had taken very little of her beauty.

Yang's life is an epic of dance. She has won countless awards at home and overseas since starting her career with a local dance troupe in Yunnan in 1971. Her work has introduced original Chinese ethnic dances to the world.

After more than 40 years on the stage, she is now passing on her legend to the next generation.

Supported by BMW, Yang started the Dynamic Yunnan Art Inheritance Center last month. The center will teach children from poor villages in the province and prevent the traditional art from reaching extinction.

"I have just been a sincere dancer who continued training, searching, and thinking," she said. "And maybe, sincere people are always blessed by the heavens, so whenever I want to do something, someone will come to help me." This time, that someone is BMW.

Dance of life

At 13 years of age, Yang was recruited to a dance troupe in Xishuangbanna, a region in southern Yunnan. Before that, she received no training in dance at school.

In 1979, the lead dancer became ill and Yang had the chance to take her role. The audience was deeply impressed by the substitute dancer who was "dancing with her heart".

The next year, she moved to Beijing to dance with the Central Ensemble of Ethnic Song and Dance.

Yang's days were not easy in the prestigious art group. She refused to accept routine ballet training because she found it "dull, and opposite to her understanding of dance". Despite criticism from her teachers, she insisted on practicing in her own way.

She presented a peacock dance in 1986, which won first prize in a national competition and made her famous overnight. Ever since, she has been called the Peacock Princess.

"When she dances, she could be a drop of water, a flower, a peacock. But at the same time, she is a human." said Xiao Quan, a renowned photographer who has worked with Yang for more than 20 years. "Man and nature are connected in her dancing."