101
Da
nce Styles
Into Dance!
In a park in Shanghai I saw men and women,
all much older than myself. They were in
small or large groups and some were alone.
They were doing their daily exercises.
Two groups of kindergarten children were
doing much the same to some lovely music.
Wushu
Their stillness was astonishing. The
balance and the physical ingenuity
shown by the older people and the
children was utterly remarkable. A
Chinese student, who is a friend of
my daughter, gently explained: “This
is not tai chi, it is traditional wushu.”
Back home in Yorkshire I looked
for tai chi or wushu courses but
could not find anything close to
my home. Books and videos were
not much help in getting started.
Then entirely by accident I
found, in Leeds of all places, the
well-established College of Chinese
Physical Culture. I saw a class in
progress, in a university gym, and it
was like being in a Chinese temple
courtyard. Most of the students were
of university age. They were showing
respect to their teachers, to fellow
students and to their training system
by bowing. Bowing was a part of
every exercise, both before and after.
There was little noise, no aggression
and what seemed no great physical
effort. No flexing of big muscles. In
fact, none of the students looked
muscular. But they did look lithe
and relaxed and they were all agile.
I saw movements that reminded
me of Chinese martial arts films;
movements I had seen at the Bejing
Opera, the Chinese State Circus
and in the work of an increasing
number of Western contemporary
dance companies. Some students
were holding silk scarves, others had
blunt wooden swords, others had
large fans and some were making
gentle contact with long sticks.
They were twisting and twirling
whatever they were holding and
gradually my inexperienced eye saw
definite patterns emerging. I could
recognise some of the animal stances
they were making: riding horse,
praying mantis, leopard, dragon and
duck. The students were graceful and serene,
supremely confident and oblivious of my staring.
Their control was astonishing. When they came
together for class breathing exercises there was
a sound like a mighty wind or a strong tide.
“This is Daoist dancing,” explained Alex Boyd,
Wushu is an all-embracing term used to describe the many
different styles of tai chi, internal and external kung fu,
martial arts and yoga practised in China. The martial arts
film star Jet Li was China’s national wushu champion many
times. Kevin Berry explains more about it
Students rehearsing for the Royal Albert Hall Dancefest.
Dancing Times September 2007
All photographs courtesy of the College of Chinese Physical Culture.
Dance Styles WuShu Sept.indd 101 16/8/07 08:57:14
102
Da
nce
Sty
les
Into Dance!deputy principal
at the College of
Chinese Physical
Culture. “They are
using the stances,
postures and
movements of our
system. It’s a way in
which two people
can make contact
and the movement
between them is
improvised. One
person might lead
and the other
follows. Nothing is
fixed. What they
do will depend
where their
energy takes them.
There is no music, except when we have special
performances, and no rhythm as such. It can
involve moving each other off balance as well.
“When I performed in London with Wai-Yii
(a female college teacher), the Head Daoist, Abbot,
from China was watching. He described our
dancing as Heaven and Earth being connected
together. Wai-Yii being Yin and me being Yang”
Yin and Yang are the two sides of Daoism on
the sea horse Daoist symbol. Yin is internal energy
and Yang is external. When performers dance
the Yin physical arts they are usually connected
all the way through. In the more dynamic Yang
physical arts, performers move away from
each other and then come back together. In
Yin physical arts a performer will wear a blue
shirt and move like water. In Yang arts he or
she will wear yellow and move like the wind.
Daoist philosophy seeks to get a person’s
body and the mind in harmony with the
natural universe. Wushu movements help
in this. Everyone has their own qi energy.
Qi, pronounced chi, is the body’s internal
energy and is replenished from food and the
earth. The physical body is seen as a window into
that body’s internal qi energy. Wushu exercises
help make the body as good a conductor of
energy as possible, so that the body is relaxed
and supple and a person’s qi can flow easily
through many different channels in the body.
What about the martial content? Isn’t that
a little aggressive, a touch Bruce Lee? “Some
movements are certainly derived from a warrior
tradition,“ admitted Boyd. “But our focus is about
developing energy. We have to make the body
very much like water and able to flow. Not hard
and strong in the Western way but flexible
and able to flow. Any competitive or aggressive
thoughts or tensions in the body will impede
the flow of qi. We can relax under pressure”.
Dancing in China developed from the need
to keep fit and from martial exercises, or
keeping fit for war. A traditional story tells
of a great flood. The people suffered from the damp
and cold and they were numb and stiff. A dance was
created to help them recover and gain their health.
There are stories of warriors dancing with swords
and shields and then in peaceful times dancing with
feathers and their shields.
The College of Chinese Physical Culture
teaches a form of wushu called Weihai Lishi
Quanfa. It is a Daoist whole body breathing
system. It was conceived and developed by the
Li family who lived in the town, now the city, of
Weihai in north east China. They used traditional
movements and many of the movements go
Websites
www.lishiarts.orgwww.ccpc.ac.ukwww.journey-film.co.ukwww.seahorsearts.co.ukgoogle “‘lee’ or ‘li’ family” to find other organisations teaching the system and to find out more of the life of Chee Soo.Books and videos are helpful but Chee Soo described the Lishi arts as “a doing art”.
Famous Names in WushuJet Li – China’s national wushu champion and star of many films including Hero and the Once Upon A Time In China series.
Dancing Times September 2007
Dance Styles WuShu Sept.indd 102 17/8/07 13:49:00
103
Da
nce Styles
Into Dance!back more than 2000 years. There are
two main movement sequences. The
Flying Hand has 185 set movements.
The Square Yard Form has 140. Both
series, or variations of them, can be
found in other wushu systems.
Chan Kam Lee brought the Lishi
system to England in the 1930s. Desmond
Murray, who is the principal of the
college, takes up the story: “Chan Kam
Lee was a dealer of precious stones,
from Weihai. He was the last of the Li
family and he was unmarried. He often
travelled to London on business and he
started a class teaching the Lishi arts
in Holborn in 1933. He wanted to pass
on all he knew about the Lishi system.
“Kam Lee was sitting on a bench
in Hyde Park when he met Chee Soo, a
14- year-old Barnardo’s orphan who had
become a bell-boy in a hotel. Chee Soo
had been playing with a ball and the ball
rolled towards Kam Lee. Two Chinese
people meeting in London was highly
unusual in the 1930s so they talked.
Kam Lee sort of adopted Chee Soo
and taught him the Lishi arts. When
Kam Lee died in a shipwreck in 1954
Chee Soo took over the teaching. Chee
Soo taught the system for many, many
years and I was one of his students.”
Murray, who is known with great
respect as Laoba (the Chinese for old
man), took the Lishi system back to
China, in 2003, to demonstrate for China’s
top wushu officials. They were deeply
impressed and they awarded the Lishi
system a recognised place within Chinese wushu.
Now the College of Chinese Physical
Culture has regular Lishi classes in France,
Germany and the US as well as all over the
UK. The Lishi system has been used to train
professional actors and many prominent
dancers use parts of it in their work.
College of CPC students have performed
at the Royal Albert Hall for Sport England, for
the Central Council for Physical Recreation’s
Movement and Dance Festival and during Big
Dance Week in London and around the country.
Next year’s contribution to Big Dance will be a
world- record breaking, mass participation event
connecting sunset in London with sunrise in
Bejing. There is a 42-minute time difference.
Lishi classes have students as young as
five and there are some who are well past
their 80th birthday. My 60th birthday is
fast becoming a distant memory but I am
far fitter and healthier than I was when I
was 16 and my wife is very impressed with
my new found physical grace. n
VocabularyDaoism - a Chinese philosophy. Daoists focus on developing
their qi energy to improve their lives, to experience a little bit
of heaven on earth.
Qi – the natural energy of the body. The body has internal qi,
which nourishes the organs and external qi, which protects the
body. Experienced practitioners move their qi with their mind;
the inexperienced move their qi with their body.
Yang and Yin – the two sides of Daoism like the two sides of a
coin. Yang is masculine energy and Yin is feminine. Yang is of the
heavens and yin is of the earth. Yang and Yin often merge.
Dancing Times September 2007
Above, A movement from the Square Yard Form.
Dance Styles WuShu Sept.indd 103 17/8/07 13:49:23