As early as last semester, the College of Dance of Shanghai Theatre Academy received an invitation to perform at the opening ceremony of the Asian Games. The leadership of the Party Committee of Shanghai Theatre Academy attached great importance to it, and the Party and administrative leadership teams of the College of Dance cooperated with the directing team in terms of professional and logistical support. The 48 female students participating in the performance were from the Class 2020, Class 2021 and Class 2022 of the Department of Ballet.
From July to mid-August, the 48 girls entered the rehearsal hall of the STA College of Dance at 10 am every day and got off at 6 pm to polish the opening ceremony dance. The choreographer of the Asian Games came to the STA College of Dance specifically to choreograph the dance sections. The students learnt the dance, and the recorded video was sent to the organizing committee for review. Revisions were made and sent back for rehearsal again. In this way, the dance was polished over and over again for more than a month.
Compared with the classical ballet that the students were familiar with, the opening ceremony of the Asian Games put forward special requirements - the toe and leg movements to maintain the classical ballet, the hands and upper body to absorb more Chinese elements, thus featuring both the elegant norms of ballet and the charm of Chinese classical women.
These students have been trained in the traditional classical ballet, and have relatively little contact with Chinese elements of dance. The choreographer and teachers continued to inspire and explain, and their expressivity soared in just over a month. This was also the first time that the students participated in such a major international sport event.
On 23 August, the 48 girls, led by teacher Liu Jianming and teacher Qiu Ting, arrived in Hangzhou to begin rehearsals for the opening ceremony, entering the Hangzhou Olympic Stadium at noon every day and working until the early hours of the morning before returning to their hotel.
With the countdown to the Asian Games, the girls' rest time was only four or five hours a day, but they enjoyed the work very much. The young dancers did not give up their self-requirements during the intensive schedule of joint rehearsals. Every day in the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre, they would complete the basic skills training required of actors, making use of both indoor and outdoor spaces as rehearsal halls. Members of the party and administrative leadership team of the College of Dance also went in batches to see to the participating students at their hotel.
During this period, the students also made full use of the fragmented time to study. The graduating students read books, with some preparing for postgraduate entrance examinations and some preparing for TOEFL or IELTS tests, while students from the lower grades watched dance dramas on their flat-screen computers.
On 23 September, they departed from the hotel at 8 am, and arrived at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium at 11 am after going through the security check. After lunch, they did the made-up in batches. After the make-up, it was still the same basic skills training session that never stopped. Dinner was at 5 pm, then the performers put on their headdresses, and finally 46 students participated in the opening ceremony performance. Two students who were unable to perform for health reasons also participated in the entire opening ceremony of the Asian Games by cheering for their fellow students on the spot.
On the morning of the 24th, the 48 female students left Hangzhou to return to Shanghai. They tidied up the dormitory rooms in the afternoon, and attended classes as usual on Monday. Many of them did not even rest during the National Day holiday, but used this period of time to make up for classes missed in September.
