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In 1995 (those younger, thinner days), I traveled on a plane for the first time to China for a Chinese-government sponsored "dance camp" in conjunction with a Canadian group. In between dancing five-and-a-half days a week for ten hours a day, we went to all the touristy places in Beijing and Canton. This is a picture of us at the Forbidden City. |
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One of our dorm rooms, also home to mutant blind rats and too many mosquitoes to count. |
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Wearing the CFDA shirts we had to hand-wash and wear every day for "uniformity". Shannon insists that they are magenta. I say they are bright pink. |
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Nadia, Jenny, and Tammie learning Yip Che Gulerng. |
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With So Lo Shi, our lifesaver during our time in Beijing. I was in the hospital with tonsilitis at the time this picture was taken. (Not a surprise, considering every day we found rocks, insects, and/or mold in our food. At least one of us was sick at any given time!) |
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Chen Lo Si, our head teacher at the CFDA, and So Lo Shi. |
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Mel and So Lo Shi. |
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Fog over the Imperial Palace. |
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A pagoda by the Forbidden City. |
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At the Imperial Palace within the Forbidden City... |
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A temple atop a cliff. |
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The Great Wall. |
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Jenny and Nadia taking a break. |
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Jenny and Nadia again. |
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Wendy and a random camel. |
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Tammie sitting in the Great Wall. |
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Demonstrating one of the dances we learned (of which there were eleven in total, over eleven days) to our government sponsors. |
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Nadia, Jenny, and Tammie with their cute Yip Che teacher! |
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With the Canadians (who numbered about thirty to our thirteen) at a party after the Beijing portion of the camp. We kept in touch with several of the girls after the trip, even though during the camp there was some tension and competition between the leaders of our groups. |
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Another picture after the party. |
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With some students and teachers at the Canton studio. It was here that we learned the most about how to dance for ourselves and with each other. |
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Outside the studio with some of the students. The one in the middle was the teacher's favorite and is probably a First Tier professional now (she was twelve at the time). |
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We went out to pick lychee about a half-hour's walk from "civilization" and got caught in the drenching rainstorm within a few minutes of complete sunniness. We were lucky to take refuge in a random hut several minutes away. |
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We stopped by Shenzhen after finishing in Canton. This is a picture from a parade of some dancers we met when they came to the U.S. the year before. Unfortunately, all of them were gone (probably retired) when we went back to China in 1999. |
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Nadia during our brief stop-over in Korea. |
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Me, Nadia, Jenny, and Tammie on the Great Wall. Four years later, it was the four of us who returned to China to dance. |
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