Dancer from a southern village stages show with thousands of figurines in different poses, Chen Nan reports.

When dancer-choreographer Yu Jinying talks about his latest project, he calls it a "ceremony" instead of a performance that he usually gives. On May 5, the show, titled Afflatus, took place at 5:05 pm in front of an old stage located in a small village, named Shuiyang, on Donghai Island in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province.

Yu was born and raised in the village. More than 500 villagers, including his family members, childhood friends and neighbors, watched the show. On an empty square, which is about 600 square meters, Yu danced through 10,693 figurines made of clay, ranging in heights from 25 to 36 centimeters. The figurines, in different poses, were arranged on the ground in circles. As Yu danced around them, he reached a cone-shaped stage made of clay, which, about 4.8 meters tall, stood in the center of the ground. On the top of the cone-shaped stage, Yu kept on dancing until his body was fully covered in mud. Then a fire was lit around the stage, which gradually dried the mud on Yu's body, turning him into the"10,694th figurine".

Then he walked down the clay stage and toward the old stage slowly. The show ended at 6:45 pm before sunset.

"After I finished the 'ceremony', I naturally walked to the water pipe nearby the stage and took a shower in front of the audience. I was not ashamed and I felt very happy. That's exactly what I did as a child and I still belong to this village, wherever I go," says the 29-year-old.

It was a longtime wish for Yu to present such a show in his hometown.

"It's a gift from me to my hometown. It's also my way of expressing my love for my hometown," he says.

The stage was designed based on the thumb-print from Yu's right hand and the number of figurines indicates the number of days Yu had lived by May 5.

His hometown, like many villages in Guangdong, has a long tradition of holding rituals and ceremonies to worship gods and ancestors.

"Many people didn't know what that was all about but I felt relieved after finishing the 'ceremony'. Maybe it's for the gods and ancestors," Yu says.

The project to create figurines with different poses started in 2019, when photographer Wu Yiwei spent about six months taking over 20,000 photos of Yu dancing. Then they invited nearly 100 artists to make the figurines.

"It was suggested that I use figurines with the same pose, which would make the project easier. I didn't think so because the figurines symbolize me each day from the day I was born until May 5,2022. I lived each day differently so I should look different," says Yu.

It took more than 40 days to set up the stage and arrange the figurines. Yu's father, and elder and younger brothers helped him with the stage settings. The rain and wind made their job difficult.

"During the past 10 years, I rarely returned home. This project allowed me to spend lots of time with my family and I really enjoyed living with them," says Yu. "We had lots of time talking and sharing about our lives. It brought back my childhood."

The villagers were curious about the project and asked lots of questions when Yu was preparing, he says. Some people asked if he was making a new fishpond or a new house and after knowing that he was going to dance, some children and women asked if they could dance with him.

"I tried to answer their questions but it's something which cannot be described by words," says Yu.

As the second son in his family, Yu was a child who always made his parents concerned, because he was a "bad student" and "not well-behaved".His parents made a living by fishing. Though they are not well-educated, they wanted their three sons to have a good life and pursue their dreams.

Yu neither know much about dancing once nor dreamed of becoming a professional dancer.

As a middle school student, he watched some of Michael Jackson's videos and imitated his moves. His elder brother saw his dancing talent and encouraged him to dance. In February 2010, when the villagers got together to have annual rituals to worship their gods and ancestors, which were held on the old stage in the village, Yu's brother encouraged him to dance after a local troupe performed Leiju Opera, an old art form of Guangdong. Yu, then 17 years old, danced for the first time in public, and the audience responded enthusiastically.

"I was very shy but I didn't know why I was able to perform on the stage. I guess that it was the gods who gave me the power to dance and made me realize my love for dancing," he says.

Later, Yu studied traditional dance and contemporary dance at Beijing Contemporary Music Academy. He practiced for hours every day because as a dancer, who started late, he had to work extra hard to make his body flexible. His parents were supportive and turned their small house into a dancing room so that Yu could practice during vacations. It cost Yu's family 150 yuan ($22) to buy a handrail fixed to the wall for him to practice, which is still there.

After the second year of his studies in Beijing, Yu became a member of Tao Dance Theater, among top contemporary dance companies in China. From 2014 to 2018, he danced with the company and toured overseas, performing in more than 30 countries. It allowed Yu to open his mind and gain a different perspective about dancing.

In 2018, he founded his own dance troupe, Ying Dance Theater, which now has five dancers.

All the figurines he used for his recent show are kept at Yu's village home. Though it may be hard to stage the "ceremony" again, Yu says he hopes that the figurines can be exhibited one day.

He has moved on to his next dance piece, Sea, which was commissioned by the China Dancers' Association. Also inspired by his hometown, the 30-minute dance piece will involve five dancers and is inspired by Yu's childhood memories about catching fish and crabs, as well as playing on the beach with his brothers. The dance piece is scheduled to be premiered at the National Center for the Performing Arts this year.

The ancient dragon dance, which has a long history on Donghai Island, is also on the agenda of Yu's schedule. He plans to research dragon dance, which involves more than 100 people both in the sea and on the beach. He will do his own choreography for a dragon dance in the future.

"I am glad to see that some art studios have opened in my village, which will teach children to sing, dance, paint and practice martial arts," says Yu. "I miss my hometown, especially when I tour abroad. I am the only one from the village who became a professional dancer and I want to share what I know and what I learned about dancing with people in my village, especially with the children. I want them to feel the power of art, which may also change their lives."