Ballet dancer still light on her feet at 74
Published on
08 Sep 2021
Published by
The Straits Times
SINGAPORE - Ballet instructor Shen Zhi Hua, 74, seems younger at heart than many people a fraction of her age.
The lively septuagenarian, one of the driving forces behind the Tampines Arts Troupe, is still light on her feet and can maintain a steady arabesque - balancing on one leg and extending the other behind the body while keeping it straight.
Sit down with her and she might spend hours telling you about her exciting past - her time with the Shanghai Ballet Company, the Cultural Revolution and the peaks and valleys of marriage, children and divorce.
"No matter whether you are a failure or success, no matter how much money you have, whether you suffer or are happy - the more you experience in life, the better," she says in Mandarin.
"Life is an experience, a journey, and when your time comes, that's it."
One of China's first-generation ballet dancers, she came to Singapore in 1984 and became a citizen in 1992.
She worked as a teacher and choreographer at the National Dance Company, Southern Arts Society and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and also taught in schools.
Today, she is the vice-president and choreographer of the Tampines Arts Troupe, and teaches dance to adults several times a week. She ran lessons on Zoom last year. This month, the troupe is launching an online performance.
Recalling being cooped up during the circuit breaker last year, she says: "I seem like an optimistic person, but I still have moments when I don't feel too happy, when it seems there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
"I was thinking, if someone so optimistic as myself feels like this, my students must be feeling even worse. So I thought I should come up with something that would allow them to express their emotions."
She tried to lift people's spirits during Covid-19, coming up with a hand-washing dance routine, posting her exercise routine online and taking photos of herself with calligraphy of the Chinese phrase for "no fear".
She has two children with her former husband, a flute player. Her 42-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome, lives with her in an apartment near Little India. Her son, 32, works in Silicon Valley in the United States and also plays the flute.
Born the eldest of six children to an accountant and a nurse, she did not know much about dance when she was talent-spotted in 1959.
"But my father told me, 'China doesn't have ballet. So you should do it.'"
In 1960, at the age of 13, she joined a ballet academy in Shanghai and trained for six years. It was hard work and students who fell short of the required standards were eliminated one by one.
She made it through. Later, she spent about 15 years at the Shanghai Ballet Company, dancing in productions such as The White-Haired Girl, The Red Detachment Of Women and Swan Lake, and later working as a choreographer.
All this happened against a backdrop of great social upheaval.
"I experienced the Great Chinese Famine and, later, the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution," says Madam Shen, who also saw Chinese leader Mao Zedong and his fourth wife, Jiang Qing, in person.
"I was valued by the authorities and we performed in different places, such as Japan - ballet was useful for China-Japan diplomacy."
But she says the hardest part of her life was when her son and daughter spent several years in the United States with their father. In 2013, when she was living alone, she came down with dengue fever and was hospitalised.
"It made me think of those elderly people who are living alone. It is quite scary at that age," she says, adding that her students look out for her and her ballet training has also made her more resilient.
Besides dancing, she has a medley of other interests - she is a member of the Singapore Literature Society, has penned articles for Lianhe Zaobao and is the author of Kai Kou Ba Wu Xie (Ballet Shoes, It's Time To Speak), a 2015 autobiographical novel.
She also practises Chinese calligraphy and is "particularly sensitive" to music. "I have more than 400 classical music CDs at home. When you choreograph a dance, it's also a test of how well you understand music."
She exercises every morning to improve her circulation.
"People say I don't seem very old. But my energy is limited now. When you interview me today, I can do only this one thing. In the past, I could do four, five tasks at once. My son says I could teach less, but I don't think so - it is good for my body."
She believes the ups and downs of life have made her stronger.
"A woman needs to experience love, marriage and divorce, before becoming an independent person. That's when you truly find yourself."
Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission.
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