Dancing to an inner rhythm

As the COVID-19 pandemic put shows on hold over the past three years, Jiang Keyu and Romuald Abbe, a dancer couple, found their "stage" in Xixincheng village in the suburbs of Beijing.

Nicknamed "purple house" by locals for its wall color, their two-story studio has become a place where dance empowers villagers to express themselves through body movements, according to Jiang. She hopes dance can help them find their outlet of feelings and encourage them to seize the moment.

Jiang and her husband, Abbe, who is from Cameroon, are choreographers and dancers, and set up their dance company in Beijing in early 2017.

Jiang graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy after studying modern dance choreography in 2004, when she was 23. From 2005 to 2009, while working on a governmental cultural project, she went to Cameroon to build its National Dance Group and train dancers. There she met Abbe. They got married in 2012 and have a son and a daughter.

Their busy life was interrupted by the pandemic, which caused dozens of their performances to be canceled in the past three years.

"I was used to a busy life, but suddenly I had no work to do. It has been very difficult for me to adjust. I decided to find something to do," Jiang says.

She wrote on a poster, "Would you like to dance with me?"

She stuck it on the door of her dance studio and to her surprise, nine villagers applied.

Zhang Ping, 44, and her 83-year-old mother, Fan Chunyan, are now frequent visitors to the studio, where Zhang wants to let her mother relax through dancing.

In the 42-year-old Jiang's eyes, their bodies haven't been through professional dance training and for beginners, the first step is to help them feel the body and let it be free.

"In modern dance, you must first connect with yourself, and then set up connections among people and in society," Jiang says.

For villager Pan Guangyin, who has studied dancing with Jiang for more than a year, this approach defines Jiang's understanding of dance.

"For me, dance is life. It helps me open my body and mind. It builds a positive bridge between artists and villagers," Pan says, adding that when she feels blue, she turns on music and keeps dancing until she feels better.

Under Pan's influence, her husband has started to learn to play African drums from Abbe. Pan says music has changed her family.

When there are shows or events related to art or charity, Jiang and the village dancers are invited to attend. Jiang is inspired from such activities and has begun to take the village dancers into her choreography work. She has named it Dreamer, a 50-minute dance, performed by about 10 villagers, aged 10 to 83.

"It is a dance where all body movements are done by our village dancers. When you are focused on your body and follow your own pace, the dance is beautiful," Jiang says.

In the dance's introduction, Jiang says: "Dance is not only my career, but also a language, which tells a story through the body. It is my memory, my present and my dream."