◎Ice dance and ballet combined...are there any successful examples◎
After Ji Tiantian replied to the post, she cheered up and continued to read other posts.
She clicked on the 2011 World Youth Ice Dance World Championships discussion thread, which had the most replies in the forum, and scrolled to the end.
206L: I watched the free dance of the Tiantang group in the national championships, and I knew they could do it! Tiantang had a good posture, Tang Ge skated steadily, and they performed exceptionally well in the competition! Perfect!
207L: Wow, I got the bronze medal, but I still can’t believe it!
208L: Really, it was like a dream. After the short dance, I thought they would be lucky to stay in sixth place, but who knew...the free dance took off straight away.
209L: They may not be familiar with the competition venue in the preliminaries and short dance, but they started to output like crazy after they figured out the route in the free dance. I am looking forward to the next season!
210L: Come to think of it... Was it because the British team made a mistake that we won the bronze medal this time?
211L: Well... I think in ice dancing, big mistakes are uncommon, but small mistakes are inevitable. Mistakes are also caused by strength. In short, our Tiantang is very strong!
212L: Sweet candy is the strongest!
The next few posts were full of flattery, and Ji Tiantian's cheeks were hot, so she switched to look at other posts. Someone also opened an "ice dance performance and screaming post".
The author of the post: Did everyone watch the skating performance? It was so sweet!
1L: I just watched the replay and I still haven't recovered. How can they be so strong... I heard that they prepared it at the last minute.
2L: What? Prepared at the last minute?
3L: Yes, I talked to the volunteer sisters on site before. Tiantang prepared her exhibition skate by herself, and the coach did not interfere.
4L: It should have been prepared at the last minute. Their costumes don’t seem to fit the show like the seafood group’s.
5L: Ah…you wrote and performed it yourself, or you prepared it on the spur of the moment. Isn’t that amazing? When I was their age, I was still playing in the mud.
6L: Playing in the mud is an exaggeration, sister! But I understand what you mean, Tiantang is really amazing. I guess the main choreography is by Tianmei. I have never seen Tang Ge skate such a cheerful program before.
7L: Wow, I love the sweet girl so much. Her lift is so cute. This little sweet girl has great energy.
8L: Has anyone been to the scene? I really want to know what foreigners think of our Tiantang! I want to hear praises!
9L: I want to hear praise!
10L: I didn’t go to the event, but the response on the Internet was very good. Many foreign ice fans who didn’t pay attention to ice dancing knew Ji Tang’s name after the performance. Foreign figure skating forums have also been discussing them these days.
11L: Yes, yes, everyone is curious, how come such a great ice dancer suddenly appeared in Asia.
12L: Wow, the ice dance is really good.
Ji Tiantian went to look at other posts and saw the screenshot post as expected.
She took a deep breath, prepared herself mentally and clicked on it.
To be precise, this is a collection of screenshots of the World Junior Championships. Ice hockey fans take screenshots of the interesting scenes related to national team players that they see in the live broadcast and post them in the forum.
The first picture was a screenshot of all the young figure skating team members, including Xu Chi and Jiang Lin, standing in a row. They all looked up in the same direction, with the same expression of surprise, disbelief, and a kind of indescribable solemnity.
Ji Tiantian reacted immediately. This scene was when everyone saw the final rankings of the ice dance event.
She couldn't help but smile and continued to look at the screenshots below.
As expected, she saw a few screenshots of her competition with Tang Yi. She was standing on Tang Yi's legs and flying, with a relaxed and happy expression. There were several "Ahhh" comments under the screenshots.
Of course there were screenshots of her and Tang Yi accepting the award on stage. Some people also commented on the screenshots.
1L: Woohoo! The winning contestants all hugged Tiantian warmly.
2L: Woohoo, Tiantian, my girl, she must have cried so hard at the scene, with red eyes.
3L: Woo woo woo, hug me sweetly, don’t cry, don’t cry.
Then, Ji Tiantian saw the screenshots of her and Tang Yi without any surprise.
One was a screenshot of her crying and talking to Tang Yi. Another was a screenshot of Tang Yi putting his coat over her head.
Comments under the screenshot:
1L: Well, sisters, can I look forward to the grown-up Tiantang...
2L: It’s still early for them to grow up! We can look forward to seeing them smile all the time when they grow up. They seem to have a good relationship, I wonder when they will get the marriage certificate.
3L: The adult group is just a routine business. Oh, I'm used to it, I'm too lazy to guess what's true or false.
4L: What I’m saying is, I don’t have any other requirements, I just hope to be fans of a real couple in my lifetime.
5L: +1 upstairs.
Ji Tiantian flipped the page again. The picture of Ning Huai, the men's singles player, bleeding from his nose while watching the ice dance was captured on screen. Some people laughed while others were worried about Ning Huai's health.
In the entire screenshot building, Ning Huai became the focus of everyone's attention, while Tiantang did not attract much attention. Ji Tiantian secretly breathed a sigh of relief and silently thanked Ning Huai in her heart.
Ji Tiantian flew back to the capital with the national youth team. That night, Zhang Lilian and many family members of the players were waiting at the airport.
“Sweet!”
When Zhang Lilian saw her daughter coming out of the airport with a suitcase, she immediately cried out in surprise and ran over to hug Ji Tiantian tightly in her arms.
"You've lost weight again..." Zhang Lilian pinched her daughter's face with heartache.
Her daughter was still young and innocent, but she had to go abroad to fight like a soldier.
It is said that talent is a blessing from God, but the pain and hardship required to bear this blessing are unimaginable to ordinary people.
"Let Tiantian have a good rest this week, go to the dance school to interact with her classmates, make up for the missed courses, and then we will start planning the training schedule for the next season." Xu Chi came over and said to Zhang Lilian, "You still have to do the usual physical training. Tiantian should know this, so I won't supervise it."
"Only one week?" Zhang Lilian was a little melancholy. The life of a professional athlete is much harder than that of a dance school student.
"Tiantian and Tang Yi are now excellent ice dancers. Their excellence has been recognized by the world." Jiang Lin came over and shook Zhang Lilian's hand. "I understand that you want the children to take a break, but this is also the critical moment for them not to relax."
Zhang Lilian didn't say anything and hugged Jiang Lin.
In this silent embrace, the two women felt a sense of mutual appreciation. Although they have different professions, they are both using their hard work to nurture the next generation of the motherland and look forward to a prosperous future.
"Linlin!" Suddenly a cheerful male voice sounded.
Jiang Lin let go of Zhang Lilian and ran towards the round-faced man who was shouting. Jiang Lin threw herself into his arms, smiling like a little girl.
"Ah!" Zhang Lilian covered her mouth and opened her eyes wide. She hesitated for a moment before looking at Xu Chi and whispered, "I always thought you and Coach Jiang Lin were a couple... but you weren't?"
Xu Chi and Jiang Lin were once partners in ice dancing. In their time, not many people knew about ice dancing, and couples were not popular. There was little information about them online. Zhang Lilian searched social media platforms but didn't see much.
"When I had nothing to do before, I specifically searched for the competition video between you and Coach Jiang Lin. The ice dancing at that time was not as difficult as it is now, but the atmosphere was so beautiful... I always thought you were like that in real life." Zhang Lilian looked at Xu Chi disappointedly, "So you... weren't?"
Ji Tiantian stood aside and said nothing. Just now, Zhang Lilian realized that the couple she had supported in the past had broken up, and Ji Tiantian felt very sympathetic.
"It's not that I haven't thought about it, it's just that it's really not suitable." Xu Chi smiled calmly, "After we retired, Jiang Lin quickly found her life partner. I was less lucky, and then I married my ex-wife... and then divorced. We don't have children, but it's fine too. Things are unpredictable." Xu Chi said, gently patting the back of Tang Yi's neck.
He watched Jiang Lin and her husband leave, then pinched Tang Yi's neck and looked at Zhang Lilian: "Then I'll take Xiong Wa home first, and you guys should get some rest early."
"Well, bye. Thank you for your hard work."
After Zhang Lilian finished speaking, Tang Yi also said goodbye to Ji Tiantian, and then left with Xu Chi.
"Hey, he won a bronze medal and his family lives in the capital, so why didn't Tang Yi's parents come to the airport to pick him up?" Zhang Lilian dragged Ji Tiantian's luggage out of the airport.
"I told you, his parents are divorced and his family situation is a bit complicated." Ji Tiantian said in a low voice.
"There are more and more divorces now." Zhang Lilian sighed as she walked. She paused, then lowered her head and taught Ji Tiantian seriously, "You must choose people carefully in the future and don't get married casually, understand?"
"I won't get married. I will just stay with my mother." Ji Tiantian hugged Zhang Lilian's arm and acted coquettishly.
"That's fine, just stay with mom." Zhang Lilian smiled and pinched Ji Tiantian's face, "Mom will support you for the rest of your life."
So Ji Tiantian and Zhang Lilian returned to the house they rented.
The game is over, and it’s time for the post-game rest period, which is neither long nor short.
During this period, athletes generally reduce their training volume to condition their bodies, repair their competition equipment, and carefully prepare for the next season.
Ji Tiantian decided to rest at home for a day before going to the dance school. While she was sleeping at home, Zhang Lilian went out to teach a retired aunt to dance.
Ji Tiantian woke up at noon and had nothing to do, so she went to the foreign figure skating forum.
The competition is over. There are fewer people who are passionately blowing rainbows, but more and more people are engaging in rational discussions and raising questions.
As usual, Ji Tiantian found posts about them in the forum.
The original poster: I wonder how China’s Ji Tang will perform in the next season.
1L: Ice dancing generally doesn't have drastic ranking fluctuations. Since they won the bronze medal, they shouldn't be far behind next season.
2L: Yes, the first echelon of the youth group, the Spanish group, the Russian group and the Chinese group have been determined.
3L: I don't think so. The 2009-2010 season was the Olympic season. In this season, many talented young ice dancers went to skate the adult pattern dance required by the Winter Olympics in order to participate in the Winter Olympics or compete with their own country's athletes for Olympic quotas. In the 2010-2011 season, the young ice dancers in many countries were reshuffled, and their own country's top skaters might not have been decided yet.
4L: I agree with the above. I also think that Ji and Tang won the bronze medal due to luck. There were no particularly strong opponents in this World Youth Championship, but it may not be the case next time.
5L: Well, it is not easy for them to maintain the third place. The formation of the first echelon of the youth group still depends on next season.
6L: It is not easy to maintain a top ranking in any event. After all, many people are watching. Ji Tang currently relies mainly on his strong strength, and his step sequence can reach level 3. But we don’t know whether they can maintain this level, whether they will regress in the future, and whether other young players will catch up.
7L: Yes, I also think the competition in this World Youth Championship is not very fierce. Russia is leading, and the levels of the following groups are about the same. We still have to wait and see in the next season.
Ji Tiantian looked at these comments and suddenly didn’t feel like sleeping anymore.
As if they had a tacit understanding, Tang Yi sent a message at this moment.
Tang Yi: Are you free today? I'll teach you.
Ji Tiantian looked at the message expressionlessly.
She didn't feel like sleeping, but she didn't feel like studying either.
She suddenly realized that Tang Yi was really smart. He remembered everything she said. She said she wanted to learn from him, and he also remembered.
Ji Tiantian thought about it and sent a message: My feet hurt.
Her feet really hurt, and she was constantly getting used to the new skates during the competition. Of course, the most painful part was the preliminaries and short dance, which had little impact on the free dance and exhibition skating.
Now that she could finally take a break, she really wanted to relax her feet.
Tang Yi quickly sent another message: It’s okay, I’ll come to your house.
Ji Tiantian: You are about to take the high school entrance exam. You should study hard. It won’t be too late to teach me after you’re done.
Tang Yi: It won’t delay you. Teaching you is also a way to consolidate your knowledge.
It seems like he can't really shirk his responsibility.
Ji Tiantian looked at her phone silently and took a deep breath.
The vacation she had finally gotten was officially gone.
But what can I do? I have to complete the goal I set for myself even if I have to kneel down.
After getting Ji Tiantian's consent, Tang Yi knocked on Ji Tiantian's door within half an hour. When Ji Tiantian opened the door, she saw a tall boy with a schoolbag on one shoulder and oden in one hand appear at the door.
The warm sunshine of early spring shines in from behind the boy, and the air is filled with the gentle scent of sunshine.
"Thank you for your hard work. Please come in." Ji Tiantian's tone also softened.
She cut a plate of fruit for Tang Yi, and then they sat face to face at the dining table in the living room.
Tang Yi took out the exercise book, copied a typical third-year math problem and asked Ji Tiantian to do it, then lowered his head to do his own thing.
Ji Tiantian held her chin with both hands, looking at the question in front of her, her mind in a mess.
She is now a third-year student in the dance school. Although she is two years younger than Tang Yi, her academic level is actually similar to that of Tang Yi, who is in the third year of junior high school.
The difference is that the six-year dance school she attended did not have the pressure of the high school entrance examination, and she could just continue to study and graduate. Unlike Tang Yi, who had to take the high school entrance examination and continue to study. The cultural courses taught in the dance school were not as difficult as those in the cultural middle school that Tang Yi attended.
Ji Tiantian couldn’t say that she had never seen a question of this difficulty before, but she hadn’t seen it very often.
"Do you think our World Youth Championship medal can add extra points for college entrance exams?" Ji Tiantian suddenly asked.
Tang Yi paused what he was doing.
"I'm just thinking about it." Ji Tiantian whispered softly and glanced at what Tang Yi was writing.
Tang Yi was sorting out his wrong questions. He copied all the wrong questions from the previous mock exams into a notebook to consolidate them. He didn't have many wrong questions. He didn't even fill up a page with all the questions from several papers.
"Tang Yi, your grades are pretty good. Why didn't I see you get into a particularly good university in your previous life?" Ji Tiantian asked, holding her chin.
"I didn't perform well." Tang Yi replied indifferently.
"oh."
Tang Yi was silent for a moment, then looked up at Ji Tiantian, who was frowning and struggling with a math problem.
He remembered that he had agreed with Ji Tiantian before that if he got hurt, he would not hide it from her anymore.
"On the day of the college entrance examination, I was in a hurry to catch the subway." He suddenly said, "I accidentally sprained my ankle while walking up the stairs. It affected my old ankle injury and I couldn't stand up for a while."
Ji Tiantian looked up suddenly: "Are you late?"
"A kind-hearted lady asked someone to carry me to the examination room, but the pain in my ankle persisted. I was somewhat affected."
"Then why didn't you repeat the year and take the test again?"
"For me, the quality of the university is not particularly important, as long as I get in." After Tang Yi said this, he noticed that Ji Tiantian's eyes were slowly turning red.
"What's wrong with you?" Tang Yi couldn't help but ask.
"I especially can't bear to hear this now... I worked hard until the very end, but I couldn't perform at my true level." Ji Tiantian sniffed, "It's so sad."
"I'm used to it." Tang Yi curled his lips.
"No, no, I can't get used to it!" Ji Tiantian couldn't help but grab Tang Yi's arm, "This kind of thing will never happen again in this life! We all want to get into a good university!"
Tang Yi looked at Ji Tiantian's bright eyes and felt his heart surge.
"Well said." He came back to his senses, "So how are your questions going?"
Ji Tiantian was startled and fell on the dining table.
Under Tang Yi's supervision, Ji Tiantian unknowingly did math problems for the entire afternoon until Zhang Lilian got home from work. She didn't even have time to eat the oden.
Zhang Lilian was very surprised to see Tang Yi coming to her house for tutoring.
After hearing about Tang Yi's family background, Zhang Lilian felt more sympathetic and fond of Tang Yi, thinking that he was a perseverant and hardworking child. So she invited Tang Yi to have dinner at her home without hesitation.
To express his gratitude, Tang Yi taught Ji Tiantian math problems for another night and left before the last subway train. Before leaving, he assigned homework to Ji Tiantian.
Ji Tiantian’s imagined first day back home: sleeping hard and playing with her phone.
Real day one: do math problems.
She truly felt what it meant to be unable to cry.
But Tang Yi's cram school really made her gain a lot. She could understand some questions that she couldn't understand before. She thought that it might not be so difficult to get into a top university in the future.
The next day, Ji Tiantian got up, tied her hair, and went to Shouwu Middle School to attend formal classes.
The Capital Dance Academy Affiliated High School is the best secondary dance school in the country. Xu Chi applied to the Sports Bureau and negotiated with the school, and the school made an exception to admit Ji Tiantian as a transfer student.
In terms of school system, there is no difference between the Affiliated High School of Shouwu and Nancheng Dance School. As a professional athlete, Ji Tiantian does not need to live on campus, and her class schedule is relatively flexible.
Before the competition, she only had time to report to school. This was her first time to attend formal classes.
Before class, boys and girls had separate morning practices. Ji Tiantian and her classmates went to the locker room, took off their coats, put on ballet leotards and big socks, put on pointe shoes, and then exercised in the dance studio.
In her previous life, she was a dancer and had a natural awe for famous art schools. In this life, she was fortunate enough to study at the Affiliated High School of the Capital Dance Academy. She was actually a little nervous. But she was not a child after all, so she would not easily express this nervousness.
"Wow, Ji Tiantian is here..."
"Bronze medalist... so impressive..."
"I wonder if the school can keep up? Combining ice dance and ballet...are there any successful examples?"
She heard the sound of her classmates discussing something behind her. She closed her eyes and forced herself to focus.
After a while, the teacher in charge of morning practice entered the classroom and morning practice officially began.
The morning practice teacher asked all the third-grade ballet girls to line up, hold the barre, and practice basic dance moves such as squatting and kicking. This is also a fixed project for dancers before starting the formal course.
Because Zhang Lilian had informed in advance, the morning practice teacher knew that Ji Tiantian would come that day. The morning practice teacher arranged her in the middle position so that she could see her classmates in front and behind and follow the movements.
The morning practice moves at the dance school were similar and not difficult, so Ji Tiantian quickly caught up.
"Ji Tiantian, keep your back straight!" The morning training teacher's voice suddenly came, scaring Ji Tiantian.
She did as she was told immediately, but after a while, the stern voice of the morning training teacher rang out again, asking her to keep her upper body straight.
Ji Tiantian looked at the morning practice teacher with a frown on her face, and realized belatedly that the ice dance training had had some negative effects on her.
In many cases, ballet requires the upper body to remain still, maintaining an elegant and upright posture. The legs are mainly used to perform flexible and light dance moves.
But ice dancing is different. In order to perform as many dance moves as possible while skating and get more P points, the skaters must move their upper body in a large range while keeping their lower body still and skating steadily.
She was used to ice dancing, so she naturally brought her ice dancing habits into ballet, which made her ballet posture non-standard.
Ji Tiantian was breathing softly, with cold sweat dripping from her forehead.
It is her beautiful vision to be able to do both ice dance and ballet, but the reality is never that simple.
There is a conflict between the two different projects. This conflict cannot be ignored.
"Everyone else stop for a moment. Ji Tiantian, you do the movements again by yourself." The morning practice teacher came over and said this to Ji Tiantian, looking as if he was going to give her detailed instructions on the movements.
So all the students' eyes were focused on Ji Tiantian.
"It's a stretch... It's really not easy to balance ice dancing and ballet." I heard whispers beside me.
"Your movements are not at the standard of our school at all. I don't know if you will be expelled if you continue like this..."
"She won the bronze medal in the World Championships. The school shouldn't expel her because of this honor, right?"
"I saw on the Internet that I won the medal this time because of good luck and few competitors. I may not be able to get this ranking in the future..."
"Well, I don't want to be like her. I might not be good at ice dancing or ballet in the future."
"Yeah, it's scary just thinking about it..."
Ji Tiantian ignored the discussions and focused on correcting her own imperfect actions.
"What's going on?" Just then, the principal of Shouwu Middle School appeared at the door of the classroom.
It was she who decided to make an exception and accept Ji Tiantian. This time, it was Ji Tiantian's first day of class, so she naturally came to see how things were going.
"Ji Tiantian's basic skills are not very solid." The morning training teacher said to the principal.
Of course, she didn't know the conflicts between ice dancing and ballet, so she just gave a brief overview.
The principal was silent for a moment and looked at Ji Tiantian: "Ji Tiantian, you have just started the class, and the teacher is not very clear about your level and does not know how to help you. How about this, you come to the center of the classroom and do a random dance. It can be a dance drama clip, or the combination of movements you learned in Nancheng. The main thing is to let the teacher see how good your level is."
In an instant, the other students stepped back, leaving the large open space in the middle of the classroom for Ji Tiantian.
Everyone's eyes were focused on Ji Tiantian, some looked expectant, while others gloated. The morning training teacher also looked at Ji Tiantian with a questioning look in his eyes.
Ji Tiantian was silent for a moment, then looked up at the principal: "Excuse me, can I use any music?"
The principal nodded: "Yes."
So Ji Tiantian took her mobile phone from the locker room and looked at the music prepared in the phone.
In her previous life, she was a dancer and a choreographer. She danced to the music alone countless nights.
Various kinds of music constitute her soul.
Because of the intense training and competitions in ice dancing, some of her dancing cells have gone dormant, but she believes they have not disappeared.
Those dormant cells, those temporarily shelved muscle memories, can be awakened by familiar music.
She chose the music and prepared to dance.
-over-
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