Latin dancer Fang Jun has had his brushes with celebrities, but it doesn't phase the Shanghai native. He lives to dance and now he's teaching his hip swiveling moves, writes Jin Haili.

Fang Jun(right) and his partner Chen Zhao swing and swirl at a performance along with Puerto Rican pop star Ricky Martin last week at Xintiandi. [eastday.com]

Fang Jun has a few choice words for international pop star Ricky Martin. As one of the city's top male Latin dancers, Fang performed alongside the Puerto Rican icon at Xintiandi last week.

Asked to compare his dancing ability with Martin's, Fang sounds a touch arrogant, but is essentially just being honest. ``I think it is Ricky who should feel overshadowed,'' says the second-place winner at the 14th National Dance Sport Competition in 2000.

``I'm almost nothing dancing next to such a big name. But there's a lot more to Latin dance than buttocks shaking.'' Fang has the credentials to back up the tough talk. He enters numerous competitions around the world from the Chinese National Dance Sport Competition to England's Blackpool Dance Festival, and runs his own choreography studio at the Shanghai Grand Theater. Then there is the silver medal at the 2000 Lotus Award Competition -- China's highest prize for professional dancers.

Fang and his partner Chen Zhao also gave a strong performance in the Rising Star Contest, a category for fledgling dancers, at the Blackpool Dance Festival in the same year. The duo progressed to the final round with 48 other couples from the thousands around the world who enter. Fang and Chen were one of only three couples from the Chinese mainland who qualified for the final round.

``Blackpool is far different from other international dance competitions,'' says the 35-year-old. ``There are no amateurs, no television cameras and above all no premiums.'' Fang has covered his own expenses, about 100,000 yuan (US$12,000), each year since 1999 to enter the Blackpool event.

It's a huge sum for a dancer without a steady paycheck. For almost 10 years, Fang has relied on the earnings from commercial dancing activities to keep his dream alive. A dream he felt from an early age.

``The first time I swayed and swirled to the beat of the vibrant music, I knew I was born to dance,'' says Fang, who started dancing at 15. ``Once I started, I couldn't stop.'' Never at a loss for words when talking about his trade, he says Latin dance in Shanghai is considered a fashion, not a business or an art form to build a career around.

This misunderstanding has prevented the dance from becoming more mainstream. In 2000, Fang devoted most of his life's savings to establish his own training center at the Shanghai Grand Theater.

The center only recruited youngsters ranging from five to 15 years originally. Everything was designed to foster a new generation of top professional dancers, says Fang. But after running a deficit for one year, things didn't look good.

To his credit Fang never quit. First he expanded the business by opening his studio to adults, whom he charged more money. He also got a bit luck. The rise of Latin-American stars such as Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez made anything related to ``Latin'' cool and trendy. More kids and adults started signing up for lessons. With an excellent nationwide reputation, Fang was soon making ends meet.

Now he is the most-wanted tutor among the Latin dancing fans on the Chinese mainland. He's also the most expensive -- for an adult, a 45-minute lesson costs 500 yuan and in Hong Kong the fee mounts to HK$1,500 (US$193).

By sharp contrast, Fang has maintained a soft spot for children and teens. Teenaged students only pay 450 yuan for 24 one-and-a-half-hour lessons at his training center. ``Our adult students always complain,'' Fang's partner Chen says. ``But Fang and I insist that those talented kids should get the best instruction.''

Though his students have performed well in the National Youth Dance Sport Competition in the past three years, Fang isn't content. His ultimate goal is to change people's perception of Latin dance -- considered a shortcut to eminence and wealth by most locals. Fang's concern strikes a chord in the Latin dance scene.

Xie Hanlong, director of the Shanghai New Century Teenage Latin Dance School, recalled what one of his students' mother's pet phrase: ``My son will stun you in two days.'' ``She (the mother) always promised me that her boy is a genius,'' says Xie, also a member of the Shanghai Dance Sport Association.

``Even if he really is, he still needs more training.'' It took Fang nearly 20 years to become what he now is.

Will there be another Fang Jun in the coming decade? Xie doesn't show much optimism. ``According to most Chinese parents' conceptions, high academic scores are more important,'' says Xie.

``Once dance training poses a conflict with study, they decisively choose the later.'' That may well explain why dancers between 13 and 16 years old have fared better than the 17 to 18-year-old age bracket -- those students are studying hard for college entrance exams.

One couple from Fang's training center has qualified for the top 20 in the under-21 category in the latest International Dance Sport Federation competition. But it has been 10 years since a Shanghai face has appeared among the top three.

``I'm 35 years old now, though perhaps I look much younger,'' jokes Fang. ``I don't know how long I will spend on the stage, but I always bear in mind what my teacher told me: `Keep dancing until one day you can't feel your heart beating'.'' History of Latin dance Latin dance is an umbrella term used to describe the Latin-American dances such as salsa, samba, rumba, mambo, cha cha, merengue, tango and paso doble.

These dances have mostly originated in either Cuba, Brazil, Puerto Rico or Argentina, but have strong Spanish and African influences. The figures in these dances are standardized and categorized into various levels for teaching, with internationally agreed vocabularies, techniques, rhythms and tempos.

But it was not always this way. Latin-American dances were introduced into Western Europe in the 20th century and have diverse origins from earlier eras. In late 1980s, the dance was introduced to the Chinese mainland.

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