Dance Makes Her So Beautiful

She rose to fame with the dance performance “A Buddha With A Thousand Hands” at the Spring Festival Evening Gala.

Her Lonely and Silent World

When she was born in hospital, the doctors and nurses delighted that she was such a beautiful baby, a little angel. When she was a baby she could tell the voices of her parents and grandmother, and her parents were so happy that she was such a clever child. But tragedy struck when she was two years old. She caught a fever that damaged her hearing. She could no longer hear and started to live in a silent world. At that time, she was unaware that she had lost her hearing. One day, when she was playing a game guessing voices with other children in the yard, when it was her turn to be blindfolded she suddenly felt lost. Because she could not hear anything, she was confused why other children were pushing her around. For the first time she realised that she was different from the others. Finally, she realised the significance of sound when she lost her hearing.

Her mother sent her to a primary school when she was four years old. She was so excited to see so many other children and could not help gesticulating to express herself. The others just stared at her before sitting down. But Tai Lihua kept running around the classroom exuberantly. A few days later her mother had to bring her back home at the request of the school.

Dance Is Her Own Language

She was sent to the school for deaf and mutes at the age of seven. There was a special class called rhythm, where the teacher stamped on the floor to let the pupils feel the vibrations. This class started to change her life. When the pupils felt the vibrations, they were so excited to catch the rhythm. Tai Lihua lay prone on the floor and pointed to her heart to show her teacher how happy she was. This lesson was so significant because she discovered the rhythm, which keeps soldiers in step and guides dancers in their movements. All life on earth has its rhythm. For the first time, she felt the strong rhythm of her own body, which was the equivalent of sound for her. She was so happy to have found her own language. This led her to dancing, which became the love of her life.

When she was 15, she started to learn dancing. She was considered too old to be trained as a professional dancer, as her body was thought already not supple enough. It was really hard work for her to do all those splits and stretching her legs, but dance was her passion. It was also a big test for her to learn the dance “The Soul of the Peacock”.

She said to herself: “You must do your best.”

It is amazing what a two-year-old girl who became deaf from an overdose of medicine has accomplished with incredible effort. When she studied at the primary Yichang and secondary schools for deaf-mutes in Wuhan, she practised dancing every day. She worked so hard that she got bruises all the time. Her mother was sad about this and often cried. At the age of 15, she wanted to receive professional dance training, but she had to pass the instructor's test. No matter how hard she danced, soaked in sweat in the rehearsal hall of the Song and Dance Troupe in Wuhan, the instructor still frowned in disappointment. This did not dishearten Tai Lihua. She started to work even harder and spent the whole day practising dancing for the rest of the month. Initially, she could only pirouette a few times, but having practised for half month, she was able to manage two or three hundred times. Within half month, her instructor was happy to see that she showed promise as a dancer.

It takes eight minutes to complete the dance “The Soul of the Peacock”, which involves a thousand movements. When she started to practise dancing every step on stage, she had to dance under the direction of her instructor who waved and beat the rhythm off stage. She had to dance different movements with the beat until she was absolutely exhausted and despondent. There were so many beats and movements. She tried to remember them step by step, at first ten movements, then another 10…

The weather was cold. Frequently her instructor gave up on her. She slammed the door on her and left the room. Left alone in the room, she became downhearted.

Then, reflecting silently for a while, she started to practise all these dance movements again, looking at her slight and lonely figure in the mirror. In order to master the pirouette, the most difficult movement, she had to practise so many times that she fainted. So for many days she just kept practising the pirouette like a beautiful peacock. Sometimes, she was afraid of fainting again. But she was even more hesitant to relax and perhaps feel like giving up. Whenever she wanted to relax, she just told herself: “You must do your best!”

Yang Liping's Surprise

Once Zhang Jigang, a famous dance choreographer, spotted her when she was practising. He was very impressed and telephoned Yang Liping, a famous dancer who was also his friend. He told her that he had discovered this deaf girl who loved to dance “The Soul of the Peacock” which she had choreographed and danced herself. When he invited her to come to see the girl dance, she said: “It would be a pleasure to see her dancing, but I have no idea how to teach.” As soon as Yang Liping came to the Song and Dance Troupe, Tai Lihua performed the dance “The Soul of the Peacock”, which she had learned by watching it on television. Yang Liping watched in amazement and said: “If I could not hear the music, I can't imagine that I could have invented the dance. She immediately took off her shoes and began to instruct Tai Lihua how to dance every step.

Life – A Great Dance

In October 1992, Tai Lihua performed in Teatro alla Scala in Italy. On September 18 th , 2000, she also danced in the Carnegie Hall in New York. She is the only Chinese artiste who has performed in these two famous theatres.

Through hard work, she has achieved success. Her dancing is beautiful and inspiring. Although she can't hear, she has the sound of music in her heart. Every time she dances, she tries to convey the music in her heart to the audience. When Yang Liping, the choreographer and original dancer of “The Soul of the Peacock”, watched her perform, she was greatly impressed by this deaf dancer who had composed her own sacred inner music without being able to hear it.

Since Lihua became a member of CDPPAT at the age of 15, she has been on performance tours with them in more than 20 provinces and autonomous regions. She has also visited over 30 countries in Asia, Europe, America and elsewhere. Before she started to perform in the Carnegie Hall, she spotted the poster showing her dancing in a peacock costume. It was the only poster of the Chinese performance, which was hung up in the foyer together with portraits and posters of other artistes who had performed in the Carnegie Hall in the last one hundred years. She won the hearts of the audience in New York with her enthusiasm and graceful dance. After each performance, some audience who were really moved went backstage to congratulate her. After her performance in Poland in March 2001, the audience, including the State President and his wife kept applauding. When the programme presenter told the audience that Tai Lihua was deaf, they showed their emotions. When the sixth international disabled people's convention was held in Tokyo in October 2002, over 2000 delegates of disabled people's associations in more than 100 countries and regions watched the performance given by the CDPPAT. Tai Lihua took the audience by storm with her beautiful performance and was honoured “ambassador” of six hundred million disabled in the world and “messenger of beauty and friendship”.

Tai Lihua is a good representative of the disabled people. “We disabled people hope to be able to participate on equal basis and to enjoy a fair share of happiness in our society. With our wisdom and determination, we are building a better future together with the whole of mankind.”

Tai Lihua's inspiring dance movements depend on her understanding, knowledge and efforts to refine her skills. She proved herself academically by obtaining a diploma in the Hubei Arts Institute and BA degree in literature. She won a prize in package design. When she married a Chinese computer engineer, even an overseas Chinese man who had proposed to her previously but whom she had refused sent his blessing. Now, Tai Lihua is aiming at new target. “I hope to create a new form of dance for disabled people. This kind of dance can be appreciated by the blind and deaf and performed by handicapped people. It should be a dance form which can be enjoyed by all the disabled.

Being determined and talented, Lihua is an outstanding dancer. She often goes on performance tours abroad with the CDPPAT and has won many gold medals and top prize in competitions for the national disabled artistes. She and other dancers astounded the world when performing the dance “A Buddha With A Thousand Hands” at the Olympics ceremony in Athens. In the 2005 Spring Festival Evening Gala, she won acclaim from the national audience. She also won the title as one of ten celebrities who touch the hearts of the Chinese people and received the award of a “May 4 th Y outh” (Note-based on the youth movement to create a new culture in 1919).