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2009

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The Va actorsLooking forward a better life, dancing on the hard shell of city

By Sun Peng

Va nationality lives in southwestern Yunnan Province of China. Their population in China is around 400,000 now. One of the main source of revenue of young Va people is to attend a local

performance school and then go to show for money in the city, espe-cially in the southeast coast of China.

Ai Luo is the leader of the biggest Va art ensemble called Black Wind, the name came from the black skin of Va people. This year his busi-ness is popular in Shang Hai and Hang Zhou, he lives here, and one of his teams with more than 50 young people works here.

Training and performancing is their life, and they are a part of the city’s life.

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As the boss of the whole team, Ai Luo hole the absolute pow-er, the only sofa in the yard outside the members’ accom-modation is his, when there is a meetting, everyone else will be standing.

In the training, he used to show the strictness and pow-er with a stick in hand and USA flag trousers.

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1/2/3 - Ai Luo and members in the training room, preparing for the com-ing performance

4 - Ai Luo is meetting in the yard

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A actor is at drill in the training room. Hang Zhou, China.

A talented actor can go up on the stage in 3 or 4 month after the be-ginning of training.

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More than 50 people live in 6 rooms far from the downtown of Hangzhou, they gat up at 6 AM everyday to do the training. Then they enjoy the reat of the day, finally go to the stage to perform the show. 7 days a week, paid one or two thousand RMB a month.

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Ni is in the training room. Hang Zhou, China

Ni is the nephew of the boss, he likes dancing, so followed his un-cle came here. with a special iden-tity, boss is more strict to him than others. He said he could not be away from this pressure.

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For the new performance Impression West Lake, actors need to put on rain boots and rehearse on the west lake with feet in the water everyday. When audience watching the show, they can not see any actors but only the props. To the star-dream-ers, it is not a good news.

Rehearsing on the west lake for Impression West Lake,

Hang Zhou, China

Street dance is one of most popular among all the shows, only the skilled and handsome boy will be sent to this show, in Shanghai Happy Valley, they do perform this twice everyday.

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Some old actors can accustom themselves to city life easily, but some newcomers are still very curious about everything different from their hometown.

Background of the performance in Shanghai, a young actress is choosing a wallpaper for her mo-bile phone. Happy valley, Shanghai, China.