Search for happiness
Yang left the Central Ensemble of Ethnic Song and Dance in 2000 and return to her hometown in Yunnan and continue her love of folk dance.
She designed, directed and performed in the musical Impressions of Yunnan three years later, but the debut attracted only one audience member with three cameras due to the SARS scare across the country that kept people at home.
Yang has since recruited ethnic performers to her troupe and tried to raise funds to support the shows. But she said the biggest problem was that the original folk dance was "too special for the market's taste", so the troupe failed to generate the revenues needed to retain performers.
Things began to change in 2009, when the troupe started making a profit and had more opportunities to perform overseas. Impressions of Yunnan, now considered an artistic name card for Yunnan province, was performed regularly at a theater in the center of the provincial capital Kunming.
Yang has been "doing just one thing throughout her life, which is searching for happiness", said Xiao.
"She has witnessed the greatest beauty of the world, and has no better way to express than dancing," the photographer said. "And while she dances, she can feel the passions of heaven and earth, which makes the process full of joy and happiness."
No speech needed
Daniel Kirchert, senior vice-president of sales and marketing at BMW Brilliance Automotive, said he likes Yang's dances very much.
"The first time I saw her dancing, I was so overwhelmed at her skill and passion," said Kirchert. "No speech is needed in her dance. The stage was her whole world and she told her stories through each move.
"Her dancing and spirit match our 'JOY' spirit, which has connotations of passion, dreams, and the harmonious interactions between humans and nature," he said.
After talking with Yang, Kirchert said he understood the "hard and determined" way the dancer-choreographer pursued her art and carried on the ethnic culture of Yunnan province.
"I believe Yang is a perfect representative of 'the Chinese dream'," he added.
With the founding of the Dynamic Yunnan Art Inheritance Center, BMW will provide financial aid to 188 students Yang has selected - all from poor families of Yunnan - through its charity organization Warm Heart Fund.
A BMW dealer in Kunming also sponsored the program.
Yang will offer free training to talented children, so the art form "can be passed on in a good fashion", she said.
Yang believes those who fit her style of dancing are not professional ballet dancers, but those who dance "facing mountains, woods and bare fields".
She said she always remembered an old lady with crooked back in the village where she grew up dancing with a leaf in her hand at the riverside, under the trees and in the open field.
And now she is passing those primal feelings about nature to her students.
The dancing master's niece Yang Caiqi, born in 1999, made her debut with her aunt at only four years old. She said her aunt told her the most important thing when dancing is "passionate devotion".
"When you are watching the sky, pierce it with your sight, she told me."
In addition to the art center, another of Yang's major plans for this year is a nationwide tour of Peacock, a dance drama sponsored by BMW that contains the essence of her 40 years on stage.
Yang's team is busy rehearsing the show, and declined to reveal detailed information. But many assume it will be the farewell performance for the Peacock Princess.
By Zhang Zhao
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