Yang Liping


Yang Liping is a Chinese dancer and choreographer of Bai ethnicity. She was first known by creating and performing "The spirit of Peacock" in 1986. She was the first dancer from Mainland China that went to Taiwan to perform in 1992. She is known across China for her creativity and her performance of the Dai peacock dance. Yang has been dubbed as the "Peacock Princess of China". She has performed over 1000 shows and toured to over 30 countries and regions, including Philippine, Singapore, Russia, US, Canada, Taiwan. Japan and Australia.

Early life and family

Yang was born 10 November 1958 in the Wen Qiang village, Cibihu town of Dali, Yunnan province. She the eldest of four children. Her parents and grandparents, members of the Bai ethnic minority, were farmers in a nearby village. Her grandmother was a singer in the village. She was born during the Great Chinese Famine and lived a hard life. She moved to Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture with her family when she was nine. Fearful of persecution in Cultural Revolution, Yang's father left his family. 11-year-old Yang and her mother supported the whole family.

Career

Yang began her formal dance training at the late age of 11, at a dance troupe in the Xishuangbanna area of Yunnan, after her family moved to the area. In the Southern flatland of Yunnan, Xishuangbanna borders the country of Burma and is dominated by the Dai ethnic group, whose Peacock dance she would become synonymous with.
In her early 20s, after she moved to Beijing to dance with the Central Nationalities Song and Dance Ensemble, she made the peacock dance her own, recasting parts of it with deft arm and finger movements. In 1986, that choreography and dance won her first prize in a national competition. She rose to national level fame in 1986 when she won first prize in a national dance competition for her original solo "Spirit of the Peacock". Ever since, she has been dubbed the "Peacock Princess".
She was the director, choreographer and star of "Dynamic Yunnan", a show that drew sellout crowds all over China. She toured Europe and the United States in 2005. Between 2004 and 2008, Yang Liping directed and choreographed a trilogy: "Dynamic Yunnan", "Echoes of Shangri-la" and "Tibetan Myth". In 2004, "Dynamic Yunnan" won five major awards at the National Lotus Awards, including Gold Award for Dance Spectacular, Best Choreography and Best Female Performer. To create the exotic song and dance spectacular "Dynamic Yunnan", Yang spent years traveling to remote villages of the 26 ethnic minority tribes in Yunnan and selected over 60 peasants who had the natural gift of song and dance, from whom she built an archive re-creating this rich feast of sight and sound.
In May 2009, she revealed a dance and music production 'Yunnan Sound', at the Yunnan Art Institute's Experimental Theater. On November 17, 2009, US President Barack Obama is visit to China, she performed the classic dance "The Spirit of the Birds" at the Great Hall of the People. She is currently a judge on So You Think You Can Dance China.

Choreographic Works

Personal life

Yang's first husband was a colleague of the Central National Song and Dance Troupe and later divorced. Her current husband, Liu Yuqing, is a Taiwanese-American. They couple met in 1990 and married in 1995, but Yang wants to dance long-term dieting and cannot be pregnant.