Dancer Xin Ying is a star afoot

Chinese dancer Xin Ying has worked her way to be a soloist in the Martha Graham Company in New York. She recently toured China with the dance company, presenting productions including Deep Song. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Deep Song was created by Martha Graham (1894-1991) for herself, premiering in New York in 1937.

"Xin is a beautiful dancer and she has the combination needed for a Martha Graham dancer," says Janet Eilber, artistic director and former principal dancer of the company.

"She has very muscular, powerful physical technique, and she is a wonderful actress. She can be slow and powerful, and she can be fast and funny. Deep Song is a response to the Spanish Civil War, so she performs a very emotional, grief-stricken role.

"And of course, she is a wonderful representative for us touring China," Eilber tells China Daily.

Born in 1985 in Yichun, in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, Xin loved dancing when she was about 5 years old, just like many little girls.

But her mother sensed she was not just a girl-next-door type, who loved dancing for fun. She found a teacher in the provincial capital, Harbin, and sent the 7-year-old Xin to live with a host family some 700 kilometers away to learn traditional Chinese dance.

In 1997, she went to receive further training at a dance school in East China's Shandong province. In 2000, she was admitted by the first choreography class in Nanjing University of Arts where she learned contemporary dance and became aware of Martha Graham. The American modern dancer-choreographer's influence on dance has been compared with the influence of Picasso on modern visual arts and of Stravinsky on music.

After graduation in 2004, Xin joined the faculty of Sichuan College of Culture and Arts.

In August 2010, she gained a full scholarship to the Martha Graham School in New York. After another year of hard work and training in all kinds of dance, Xin became a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company.