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  • VOLUNTEERS: Arts teachers walk to Henancun Elementary School in Duancun Township. Supported by the Hefeng Art Foundation, over 10 volunteer teachers from the highest national-level arts institutions in Beijing came to the township every weekend to offer free art classes since March this year.
  • DO-RE-MI: Meng Ziyan (right), 22, a baritone-major from the Central Conservatory of Music, guides chorus practice. With the help of the China National Opera House, the Hefeng Art Foundation started a children's choir in the township in November 2012.
  • ODE TO THE ARTS: Chorus head Liu Yuchun, 11, singing Ode to Joy
  • HELPING HAND: Meng Ziyan teaches Zhang Xiran, 7, the youngest member who joined the chorus only one month ago.
  • FEEL THE BEAT: Gao Han, a graduate from the Beijing Film Academy, teaches Wang Zexuan how to follow the tempo of a song.
  • WELL DONE: Li Silin, who grew up in Australia, teaches 10-year-old Fan Siyuan about performing washing hands in drama class. The Hefeng Art Foundation launched the children's theatre with the help of the Central Academy of Drama in September 2012.
  • WARMUP: Four ballet pupils playing games to help with stretching. The Hefeng Art Foundation launched the country's first ballet training center for rural children with the help of the National Ballet of China and the Beijing Dance Academy in June 2012.
  • NO PROBLEM: Grade-two pupil Liu Yetong is stretching before practice starts
  • LEADING THE CLASS: Ballet class head Ma Xueqing (middle), in grade one of junior high school, leads the practice session. "My mom promised me that I could pursue my dream of becoming a professional dancer if I work harder," Ma said. "I love dancing and I will keep going."
  • PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT: 12 out of 18 pupils continued their ballet practice during summer vacation.The first ballet class opened on March 24.
  • TAKING IT EASY: Pupils prepare the Four Little Swans from Swan Lake.
  • OPENING SCENE: Pupils pose before practicing Lotus Breeze. The main prop for the dance is artificial lotus leaves. Some 85 percent of Baiyangdian area, the largest freshwater lake and wetland ecosystem in northern China, is located in Anxin County. Lotus is one of the local specialties.
  • GETTING READY: The opening of Lotus Breeze
  • DREAMING BIG: Becoming a painter was Dongdi Elementary School grade-five pupil Li Ziyi's original dream. After falling in love with ballet, however, she dreams of becoming a professional dancer and could perform one day at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
  • BON APPETIT: Ballet pupils have their simple lunch in the sunshine
  • ATTENTION: The student orchestra rehearses Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with conductor Xiong Feng (left), a flute major at the Central Conservatory of Music. The Hefeng Art Foundation finished its orchestral recruitment with the help of the China Philharmonic Orchestra and National Ballet of China's in house orchestra in December 2012.
  • LIKE A PROFESSIONAL: Pupils perform Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
  • STAY FOCUSED: Pupils playing the violin. The Hefeng Art Foundation found supplier of musical instruments to become its partner so as to ensure that instruments could reach local pupils by the end of March. The first class opened on April 6.
  • BEAT BOY: Yang Boxiang (left), a grade-five pupil in Xidi Elementary School, plays the drum with Zhang Yujin of the Central Conservatory of Music. Zhang, 19, is majoring in percussion and is the youngest volunteer teacher in the program.
  • NEVER GIVE UP: Yang Jiayi, a grade-four pupil at Dongdi Elementary School, plays the trombone. Yang is a gifted player even though he is smaller than the instrument he holds, said Huang Weinan, 21, a trombone student at the Central Conservatory of Music.
  • A NEW LOOK: A worker at the construction site in Duancun Township's new campus. All the paintings on the wall came from the pupils of the painting class. The inauguration ceremony of the new campus, which covers an area of 20,000 square meters, will be held on September 28. Three elementary schools in the township would be converged into one, benefiting some 1,000 local pupils.
  • SENSE OF PRIDE: Li Ping, 25, a candidate for the oil painting masters program at Beijing Normal University, shows off the painting his student gave to him as a gift. The first class opened on March 30. "They knew nothing at the very beginning, but look at them now!" Li Ping said. "I am proud of my students."
Photos by Chen Ran

 

Multimedia: Dream a Little Dream     

Life-Changing Symphony    

The melody of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star floated out of Xidi Elementary School of Duancun Township in north China's Hebei Province on August 31, which was the last Saturday of the summer vacation.

More than 40 pupils were playing orchestral instruments in accompaniment for student choir while under the shade provided by a bungalow in the tiny and shabby campus. Standing beside them were volunteer teachers who came every weekend from Beijing, some 150 km away, to offer free classes in the arts.

The orchestra was rehearsing. They will perform on September 28 at the inauguration ceremony of the new campus, which covers an area of 20,000 square meters. Three elementary schools in the township - namely Dongdi, Xidi and Henancun - would be converged into one, benefiting some 1,000 local pupils.

Each performer, aged between 7 and 11, showed a sense of professionalism no different to any world-class orchestra although their technique still needs refinement. The parents and other family members waiting to pick them up after the rehearsal applauded when the song finished. The five-months of practice had paid off.

Before March this year, no arts classes were available for some 600 local pupils due to the lack of teachers. The only orchestral instrument they knew was the violin.

The Beijing-based Hefeng Art Foundation, the country's first private foundation that aims to provide arts education and promotion, offered free arts classes – including ballet, orchestral instruments, drama, choir singing and painting – to local students every weekend as a complement to the curriculum. The volunteer teachers all came from well respected national-level arts institutions in Beijing such as the Central Conservatory of Music, the Central Academy of Drama, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Beijing Dance Academy. They also helped initiate arts class teaching plans for the local elementary schools.

Li Feng is the man behind the Hefeng Art Foundation and he has been working on the new campus since 2011. The fifty-something businessman believes in the power of arts, and dreamed of something big. He wanted to let the power of the arts guide the future of these rural students, and help make their progresses an engine for cultural development in China's rural communities.

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