????Anna Zhao ????anna.whizh@yahoo.com ????SHAO BING never expected that her sheer love of dancing could bring her so much when she established a dance troupe in college 11 years ago. Since then, with due diligence and an innate talent for dancing, she has carried her dancing dream onto greater stages step by step, from her school’s little theater to the national stage. Now a young mother of a 4-year-old, she has moved her stage behind the spotlight but remains faithful to her dream — helping young people realize their own artistic dreams. ????Burgeoning dance troupe ????Shao’s interest in dancing hails from childhood. When international pop idols swept the country at the end of the last century, she taught herself jazz dance by mimicking pop idols such as Britney Spears, Beyonce and Japanese singer Namie Amuro. ????She established her first girls’ jazz dance group, GreenMax, with other four girls in 2002 when she was studying business in Shenzhen Polytechnic. When she wasn’t taking lessons, she would practice, perform or tutor others in dancing. ????After graduating from college, Shao took a job as a bank clerk, but she didn’t give up dancing. ????She spent almost all her spare time training with her teammates. “Every day I had no private time at all. All that was on my mind was rehearsing and bringing our team to a wider audience,” Shao said. “I felt I was voluntarily doing an unpaid job.” ????The dance troupe had its big break in 2010 when they performed in “Xing Guang Da Dao,” a national talent show aired on CCTV, China’s central television station. ????The then 28-year-old Shao had just become a mother of a 3-month-old son and had to take great pains to get back to her pre-birth body shape. She was the lead singer and choreographer of the troupe. Their performance on the show featured diverse genres, including Indian and Egyptian music and dances, Hakka dance, and their own creation that integrates stage drama into dancing. It was well-received and the girls won the first week’s championship and were in the top 10 by the end of the show’s final competition. ????“We went to the show with no expectation that we could win. All we did was try our best to bring what we have to the audiences,” Shao said of the experience. “But all of a sudden, we seemed to be big stars after we were announced winners. My friends thought that I spent too much time dancing and it was quite a distraction from my job, but when they saw my performance in Xing Guang Da Dao they thought my effort worthwhile.” ????In early 2011, Shao resigned from her bank job — a career that is commonly considered stable — and thought it would be better to focus on dancing. She said she made the decision because she wanted a change in her life. ????Performing on bigger stages ????After achieving success on the national stage, Shao’s team became widely known and invitations were numerous. ????In 2011, Shao’s team was invited as a local art troupe to participate in a performance for the Shenzhen Universiade. Shao was also a bearer of the Universiade torch in the sports games’ torch relay. ????She choreographed the dance to accompany the opening theme song for the Universiade and led her team in putting on a pop concert for international athletes in the Universiade Village. ????“It was a great honor for us to perform at the Universiade, because none of us were professional dancers,” she said. ????Since then, Shao’s team had more opportunities and has grown in numbers. They were often invited to perform for commercial events, and on bigger stages, such as dancing at renowned pop stars’ concerts in Hong Kong Coliseum. ????Behind the spotlight ????Now Shao has converted the dance troupe into a dance studio and is art director of a music art company based in OCT Loft in Nanshan District. ????She frequently travels across the country to scout young artists from music and dance colleges. Her work has gradually shifted backstage to focus on training and promoting young people. ????But her passion for dancing is unabated. She participated in several well-received TV programs, such as “Super Diva” on Dragon TV and “Amazing Dance” on Hunan TV. ????Shao said she preferred comprehensive development, despite her primary interests in dance and music. “What I am currently doing is bringing about a good combination of the resources between art companies and talented young people, and making sure a good career platform is accessible to them,” Shao said. ????Speaking about the prevalence of talent shows in recent years, Shao said these programs have provided a barrier-free platform for talented young people who come from obscurity to be recognized by the public. ????Her job enables her to meet many different people, including both major celebrities and young people trying to make a name for themselves. ????She said young people who study music and dance in colleges and universities often are confused about their future development in a highly competitive field, while the domestic entertainment industry is not mature enough. ????“We’re helping young people pursue their music dreams and letting them know that they have various potentials, rather than just being a singer,” Shao said. ????She said a major shortcoming with young people in their 20s is that they tend to have excessive concerns about their future and are often hesitant to take immediate action. “They lack a clear target and are easily distracted by minor difficulties,” she said. ????She said her job often requires her to break new ground and her experience these past years has taught her to take firm steps towards a goal. ????“You’ll come up with methods to fulfill your tasks. Every trade has its own set of skills. If you’re interested in a trade, it will be fun,” she said. “It’s not easy for a woman in my field and I have to constantly refresh my skills. Luckily, I have my family’s full support.” ????Yuan Weiwei, a classmate of Shao at senior high school, said Shao has displayed particular perseverance in her life’s journey. Yuan spoke of his old friend with great admiration, saying that Shao is “a person of strong will and passion” and her rise from the bottom is legendary. ????“It’s easy for one to practice dancing as a hobby during school years. But few people would make it a career, especially for girls, who often give it up when they have a family,” Yuan said, adding that he also used to dance in his student years but didn’t follow it through. ????Ou Xing, who met Shao eight years ago due to the same interest in dancing, said Shao was a person of perseverance and determination. “Many girls would give up dancing when they get married or have children, but Shao persisted in pursuing her dream up to today,” Ou said. ????“Every day I had no private time at all. All that was on my mind was rehearsing and bringing our team to a wider audience.”— Shao Bing, a local dancer training and promoting young people | 