The Life—Changing Power of Art Text by Zi Jian.docVIP

The Life—Changing Power of Art Text by Zi Jian 　　Dressed in pink tutus， four girls raise their hands into the air， point their jaws up， and look towards the sky. Beneath their snow-white slippers lies an expansive wheat field rather than the hardwood of a dance studio. Such a poetic scene can be found in an ordinary township on the plains of northern China. The ballerinas are elementary school students of Duancun Town in Hebei Province. Their lives were turned upside down in March 2013 when the Hefeng Art Education Program arrived. Ballet in the Fields Duancun Town is located on the northern shore of Baiyangdian， the largest lake on the Haihe River Plains. Consisting of several villages， its population numbers over 10，000， most of whom subsist through tourism and aquatic cultivation industries along with the cultivation of grains. The average household income in the area sits at 50，000 yuan （US$8，200） a year. Most kids in the area spend their free time watching television or playing with friends. Although the town is only a few kilometers away from the county seat， inconvenient transportation diminishes the feasibility of enrolling in already-expensive 40-yuan-per-hour art training classes there. A few children bid farewell to their too-plentiful leisure hours in June 2012 when 20 girls were selected as the first group of trainees for China’s first Rural Children’s Corps de Ballet. Guan Yu， deputy director of the Ballet Department at the Beijing Dance Academy， agreed to serve as an instructor for the program after an invitation from Li Feng， founder of the Hefeng Art Foundation. “I was dreaming of teaching underprivileged children in villages of Yunnan Province after retiring，” grins Guan， “but my dream is coming true ahead of schedule.” Li Feng has a firm belief in ballet teaching in the countryside.“The art was developed by aristocratic classes， but performing it here will profoundly influence these children’s lives，” he explains as the r