Famous dancer calls for 'more interesting' art education

Famous Chinese dancer Huang Doudou called for schools to make art education more interesting for students when delivering a speech at the 15th Shanghai Education Expo on Tuesday.

“I noticed some schools emphasized dance education very much, where teachers work hard and parents have high expectations for their children,” he said. “But I also saw that the second and third graders there only practice basic movements, such as leg pressing and back bend. When I saw those children’s tears, I couldn't help thinking: ‘Will they love dancing when they grow up?’”

Huang believes that campus dance should make children happy "from the bottom of their hearts," just like other types of art.

He briefed the audience on a program he attended, in which he and some teachers from the American National Dance Institute danced with local children. In the video he shared with the audience, children of all shapes and sizes danced with teachers using simple movements. 

Huang said that arts education at primary schools should focus on making children feel the happiness the arts can bring to them.

“But when they grow up to be middle and high school students, we should cultivate their aesthetic ability, while in university, we should encourage them to express creative ideas with art,” he said.

Some local schools are already exploring creative ways of helping children love the arts.

At Tianshan No.1 Primary School in Changning District, students are encouraged to create new school bell melodies.

Lu Huaqiong, headmaster of the school, brought up one boy as an example. She said the boy used to be very shy, but after one of his tunes was used as the school bell, he became confident and now loves singing loudly.

At Gezhi High School, teachers and students are cooperating to create interesting experiences in art. For example, a Chinese language teacher would write lyrics and a music teacher would compose the tunes, and then they would ask students to play the music and sing together.

Ti Gong