悉尼华人舞蹈团团长袁菁女士访谈录
温婉的音乐响起，一只“孔雀”的倩影渐渐出现，她洁白胜雪的长裙，服顺地紧贴着。远远地，她不就是一只不食人间烟火，高贵优雅的孔雀吗？
看，她动起来了，她舞起来了！柔嫩的腰肢，灵活的纤指，轻盈的双脚，舞出神秘的境界。她的大眼，在向我们传递怎样的情感；她的嘴，一张一合，时而上扬时而下垂；她的发髻上的装饰，孤傲地站立着……顾盼生辉的妙眼，是那么风情无限；小巧的朱唇，似乎要讲述悠远的故事；华丽高贵的发髻，在宣布美的神气！
我惭愧于自己的文笔粗糙，无法逼真地描绘出我所见到的高贵的美。惊艳，这就是我观看袁菁女士的代表作——独舞《孔雀》之后的感受。
袁菁女士成长于上海的一个家教严厉，学术气氛浓郁的医生家庭。天生丽质难自弃的她，是一副活脱脱的美人胚子。袁菁早年专攻民族舞和芭蕾舞，并利用业余时间自学掌握了英语，后顺利考入外语学院，成了一名那个时代少有的天之骄子。随之而来的是一份优渥无比的工作——担任深圳中国海洋直升飞机公司的翻译。
1986年底，一份浪漫的异国情缘让年轻能干的袁菁来到了澳洲。身在异国的她，深刻感受到作为一名海外华人，掌握英语和法律的重要性。经过不懈的努力学习，袁菁于三年后顺利进入新南威尔士州消费事务部（现为公平交易委员会）工作。当时的她，工作之余还就职于一家律师事务所，以便更多学习有关商业法、合同法以及公平交易法的专业法律知识。公平交易委员会内部，经由袁菁负责的案例，调解成功率是最高的。此外，她经常为小生意从业者，以及TAFE等机构讲解澳洲公平交易法。同时，她还经常热心地帮助华人商家和消费者悉心解决各种纠纷问题。
虽然已跻身澳洲成功华人精英之列，袁菁女士并不仅仅满足于事业上的不凡成就，她更想代表华人社区为澳洲多元文化添加一笔异彩。在袁菁的倾力主持下，2004年那个不平常的9月，悉尼华人舞蹈团诞生了。作为核心领导人物的她，始终把不断推陈出新舞蹈节目，丰富表演内容作为己任。为此，袁菁不辞辛劳，特地拜师一位著名的西班牙舞蹈专家，研习多日，最终使自己的舞蹈修养达到了相当专业的水准。这位舞蹈家在谈到袁菁的时候，不吝溢美之词的评价道：“西班牙舞的感情世界过于丰富，初学者不花一两个月的时间感悟舞蹈的感情，是不能找到入门的感觉的，而袁菁却能够跳出西班牙舞原滋原味的韵味和力度。”且袁菁，恰恰是演绎西班牙舞蹈最适合的人选。因为西班牙舞的一大要求就是“直板性”，无论脚下变化万千，上身要一直保持挺拔笔直，以此来突出线条，展示立体的动感。
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Ms Jing Yuan was raised in a strict doctor’s family with a strong academic background in Shanghai. Jing was a born beauty. In early years, Jing taught herself English in her spare time while she mainly focused her training on folk dance and ballet. Later, with the exceptional performance in the entry exam, Jing became a student in Foreign Language University, followed by an excellent job opportunity – the translator of the China's Marine Helicopter Company in the city of Shenzhen.
In the end of 1986, a romantic foreign relationship led Jing to the beautiful land of Australia where Jing deeply sensed the importance of mastering English and Law. Three years later, through diligent study and hard work, Jing became an officer of the NSW Fair Trading Department. At the same time, she also worked for a law firm where she could learn more about the regulations and laws in the field of business, contracts and fair trading. Jing’s cases are among those that have the highest rate of successful mediation. Since then, Jing has been offering great help to all kinds of small businesses, Australian Chinese companies and local customers.
Becoming one of the most outstanding Australian Chinese elites is not Jing’s ultimate goal as she has the ambition of representing the Australian Chinese community and contributing to the multiculturalism of the society. Driven by such great passion, the Sydney Chinese Dance Group was established by Jing Yuan in September 2004. As the central leader, Jing has devoted everything working on new performances and has even become the student of a very famous Spanish professional dancer. Jing’s hard work is very rewarding that her dancing techniques have stepped into a new professional level. “Spanish dance has such a rich range of emotions that it takes months for beginners to grab the sense of feelings in it. It is exceptional that Jing can master these unique feelings and strength so quickly”, said the Spanish dancer.
Jing is not only specialised in Classic Western dances, but also in traditional oriental dances. The traditional dance “Yellow Fan” of the ethnic group of Korea in China is one of Jing’s masterpieces. This elegant performance has not only demonstrated Jing’s excellent techniques, but also the great effort Jing put in choreography. Apart from “Yellow Fan” and the Modern Jazz “007”, the large-scale original Chinese dance drama Flower Goddesses of the Tang Dynasty is also one of the most famous and extraordinary works choreographed and produced by Jing. Flower Goddesses of the Tang Dynasty is a six-act drama dance performed by the Sydney Chinese Dance Group with elaborate productions. It is based on the 52-chapter novel composed by the Australian Chinese writer Shan Luo, derived from traditional myths and legends of the Tang Dynasty. It was first staged in Parramatta Riverside Theatre on 1st June 2013 and then successively performed on various stages across Sydney since the debut was remarkablely well received. The passionate drama dance has a very profound meaning as it praises the beauty and universal love of virtuous souls and it has gone beyond the usual creativity of dance, since this is the very first time that overseas Chinese have staged their original and authentic large-scale drama dance, illustrating the long history and splendid Chinese culture.
Leading a major dance group with many members is no easy task. Besides focusing on choreographing and artistic study, Jing is also highly involved in daily operation and administration to ensure everything is in progress and perfect order. Under the leadership of Jing, all dancers attend the training every Sunday afternoon year after year. It is such perseverance and passion towards to dancing that allow the dance group to present to the audience fantastic dance shows.
Since the establishment of the Sydney Chinese Dance Group, the abundant encouraging and touching stories have demonstrated the great passion of these beautiful dancers towards charity in both Australian and Chinese societies. In 2011, the large-scale charity dance show “Dedication of Love” produced by Jing and the headmaster of Sydney Beilei Dance School, Mingyue Liang, with the aim of enriching multicultural and artistic communication, dedicated all its income to the Westmead Children’s Hospital, offering priceless support to the local children’s charity programs.
Early 2009, the dance group was invited by the government to join the charity show for Victoria Bush fire on behalf of the Chinese people in Sydney and Australian professional performing art groups. The group’s performances were very well received. In 2008, soon after knowing about the terrible earthquake in Sichuan Province China, the group decided that the show “Dream of Dance” would be put on stage as a charity show for the earthquake instead of its original intention of celebrating the 2008 Beijing Olympics. All income of this performance was donated to Sichuan Province for rebuilding the city. As Australian Chinese, the Sydney Chinese Dance Group’s contributions to the Chinese society were highly spoken by the Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Sydney.
In 2006, Jing invited the family members of all the dancers to enjoy their Christmas show, expressing the dance group’s appreciation of the family members’ understanding, effort and support. Jing revealed that the dance group’s glorious today is attributed to all the dancers and friends who are full of dedicative and supportive spirit. It is the sense of solidarity and responsibility that ensures the success of every single performance!
For these years since the establishment of the dance group, Ms Jing Yuan and all her dancers have presented fantastic dance shows to various local communities in all different regions. As a part of the Australian Chinese community, I here offer my sincere appreciation of the contributions that the dance group has made in terms of promoting and facilitating the cultural and artistic communication among different ethnic groups and communities in Australia. Meanwhile, I hope and believe that the Sydney Chinese Dance Group will present more splendid performances to extend and deepen the well-founded friendship between the Australian and Chinese people!
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