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PITTSBURGH (AP) — Grace is the product of hard work. Through Chinese dance, Yanlai Wu instills grace in her students by making it clear to them: You need to work hard.
She learned it early, right after she moved to Beijing at age 12 as one of 25 children selected to train at the most prestigious dance school in China.
She knows the professional world of dance inside out. She has performed on many stages across the world; she mostly teaches these days but still serves the one and only — the art of Chinese dance.
She made it to the top in China and then there were no more summits to climb — except to carve out her own path in the U.S., and eventually Pittsburgh.
It hasn't been easy.
Yanlai was taught to seek perfection in dance — it's what made her so successful. In this new country, she discovered that perfection may not always be an achievable goal, either in her students or her business.
Yanlai fell in love with dance as a little girl in her native Yunnan province. At 11, she moved to Shanghai to go to school and live with her grandparents. One day she was chosen to audition for "beautiful ladies" from the Beijing Dance Academy and became one of three from Shanghai chosen to attend.
She stayed for 12 years. A typical career path for someone like Yanlai would have been to join a local troupe and perform. Yanlai was thinking of leaving Beijing and moving to Shanghai, but the school administration wanted her to continue onto a college level as a dancer.
After the two-year program at that level, she joined the Young Troupe of Beijing, "which was the top of the top," she said. "I was lucky to reach that point, but when you make it, that's it — there is nowhere to go. So I felt lost. What's next for me?"
The next stop was the United States — in Houston — where Yanlai saw her professional habits through other people's eyes. Soon after she started teaching at Houston Dance Academy, she was called into the principal's office. Her students were complaining. Yanlai was never generous with positive feedback.
"I have never worked with amateurs before that," she said. "If you are professional, no one says you are good. Everyone says, 'This is not good, this is not good, you have to fix this and that.' "
When she did that at the academy, "there were students who would just cry, and I would not understand why they cried. I didn't punch her or I didn't say bad words, I just wanted her to fix her movement."
After one year in Houston, Yanlai moved to Pittsburgh and opened Yanlai Dance Academy in Ross. It turned 11 this year. The struggles are multiple and often emanate from the fact that Yanlai's artistic side is more developed and more passionate than her business side, she said.
Yanlai has taught 70 students ranging in age from 3 to 60. They make her proud when she sees them on stage.
Pittsburgh might not be an ideal place for her target audience, which mainly includes people who have direct connection with China — Chinese immigrants or American parents who adopted kids from China — but Yanlai feels peaceful here.
"In Pittsburgh, you can be very focused on your goal, on the passion that you would like to pursue," she said. "It's also very safe. I walk my dog Peanut around at night, and I am not afraid."
The life of an immigrant turned out to be different from what Yanlai first imagined it to be when she was traveling with Beijing Youth Troupe, performing in beautiful theaters.
"You don't realize that it could be hard without knowing the language, knowing the laws, knowing people."
Yanlai liked meeting real people and still remembers the first time she saw a garbage disposal in a sink. She thought it was the greatest invention ever.
She is no longer a newcomer. Garbage disposals do not surprise Yanlai anymore, and she is realistic about the impossibility of applying professional dance standards to her students.
But when the lights flash on stage at Downtown's Byham Theater on May 9, Yanlai will have the highest expectations. She will see it as a chance for her students to wow the audience, to reach for perfection with precision, to show the magic of grace sharpened, thanks to hours and hours of practice.
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Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com
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