飞扬艺术团：向世界分享中国艺术

刘天恬

飞扬艺术团（CPAA）于1991年在美国加州成立，是一家非营利的艺术机构，其目的是通过表演艺术将中国文化介绍给美国社会。飞扬艺术团通过尽善尽美地展示非凡的中国文化艺术，使中华文化瑰宝可以被世界分享。

2020年，突如其来的新冠疫情打乱了所有人的步伐，至3月，旧金山湾区封城，各行各业停止运转。飞扬艺术团艺术总监韩峰说：“那时候我们的华人春晚刚结束，正在准备飞扬艺术团成立三十周年的庆典演出，因为疫情原因，所有工作都陷入了停滞。”

携手抗击疫情

王何春子从上海交通大学本科毕业之后，直接来到了斯坦福大学念硕士研究生，毕业之后留在硅谷的一家教育创业公司担任项目经理。2019年的暑假，她加入了飞扬艺术团。她从2017年来到美国之后，就没有回过国，原本打算2020年春节前回家过年，但由于国内疫情暴发，一直没能回去。

留在美国，物质上的东西对她来说影响不大，最令人放不下的是来自家人的担忧。“我没有想到我一个人在这里这件事情可以让那么多人牵挂，他们的担心会让我也很担心，我很想让他们知道我在这里过得很好，他们不用担心我。”

特蕾西是飞扬艺术团的一名志愿者，疫情以来，她就一直在家办公。随着疫情的恶化，购买食品也成为一项重要任务。她买了一个很大的冷冻柜，想尽办法储存了很多肉和冷冻食品，特蕾西一家从此就几乎都不出门了，也没有邀请任何人来家里，尽自己所能来确保家人的安全。

飞扬艺术团的舞团成员米歇尔说，在疫情期间，她们一家人一天24小时都待在家里，距离的缩短导致很多生活上的细节全部被放大，也就开始产生了一些摩擦。每天的跳舞时间是她最期待的，可以远离生活的琐事，尽情沉浸于舞蹈中。为了家里有合适的场地满足跳舞的需求，她还把客厅的地毯和沙发都清走了。

网络传递艺术

由于疫情的影响，飞扬艺术团积极鼓励所有老师有组织地提供线上课程。一开始大家对网课并不能完全接受，老师们觉得舞蹈应该言传身教，是网课的话只剩下言传了，身教的效果就差很多，但鉴于疫情只能先试一试。随着时间的推移，大家也都慢慢克服了网课中的问题，开始适应了。这个过程中还发生了许多趣事，比如这边上着课，那边一只小猫小狗就跑过来了;还有由于网络信号不稳定，動作做着做着突然音乐伴奏就没有了，画面静止了，状况百出，啼笑皆非。

疫情以来，最受影响的还是孩子们。埃米是一名中学生，她习惯了去校园里上学、面对面结交朋友以及在教室里上课的生活，突然间所有的东西都变成了在家完成，一切都变成了在线上，这是一个很大的转变。她所有的课外活动都变成了网课，舞蹈课是最有挑战性的，因为它需要最大的空间。她的家人一起讨论了一段时间，最后决定清理出一间起居室，并且设置了一个大屏幕作为舞蹈课的屏幕。埃米是非常优秀的学生，一直坚持训练，她在比赛中获奖的消息无疑给大家增添了很多信心和力量，激励大家用这种坚持的态度去不断追求和实现自己的理想。

疫情期间，飞扬艺术团中有很多的学生也以视频的方式，积极参与了很多全国性的舞蹈比赛，同时也获得了很好的成绩。

同样是CPAA舞团成员的王何春子也表示 ，尽管她的房间不是很大，但她会想尽办法利用空间来做一些跟舞蹈相关的事，无论是保持自己的肢体柔软度还是再开发一下自己身体的舞蹈机能。慢慢地她发现，确实是有很多可以在家里做的事，也就没有那么担心了。虽然她很想念在舞蹈房的日子，但也相信这样的日子很快就会回到她的身边。

传播中国艺术

最近，旧金山湾区各行各业逐渐复苏。飞扬艺术团也恢复了原本的课程，谢丽尔 · 泰勒说：“这就像开学的第一天，我们又见到了熟悉的每个人。每年夏令营的第一天，当老师和学生们回来时，就像家庭重逢一样，可惜的是，我们还无法像以前一样相互拥抱。”

为准备飞扬艺术团的重新开放，工作人员们开了好几次会议，讨论如何在这个时期让学生和老师感到安全舒适，更重要的是要遵守城市以及CDC的规则。为此，制定了一系列安全规则。此外，工作人员还要求师生在课前课后进行个人卫生消毒工作，确保大家能有一个安全卫生的环境。

三十周年的晚会是介绍中国唐朝文化的一组节目，主创人员选择了诗人李白的清平调作为其中的一个节目。对晚会的期待，让舞团成员们排练的时候都保持着很高的热情。

飞扬艺术团的韩峰说：“飞扬三十年的舞台创作从未间断，由于疫情虽然被迫中断了一段时间，但现在大家又重新集合，开始踏上新的征程。越是在这种逆境中，越是能让大家团结起来，彼此依偎、彼此关照、彼此鼓励。在疫情下，我们的坚持能够为社区和广大热爱艺术的人们提供一个平台，让大家在疫情中也能感受到艺术带给我们的力量。”

疫情让我们意识到人类是多么脆弱，但希望之火始终不曾熄灭。真正的艺术就是这样一种精神，可以为人们提供振奋人心的能量。

CPAA， Showcasing Traditional Chinese Art to the World

By Tian Tian

CPAA， or the Chinese Performing Arts of America， is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 in California， US， and it has been devoted to introducing Chinese culture through performing arts.

In the beginning of 2020， the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 shut down the Bay Area， San Francisco. “The Chinese Spring Festival Gala was just over then and we were preparing for the 30th anniversary of CPAA，” said Han Feng， CPAAs director. “But we had to suspended all activities due to the epidemic.”

While people have realized how vulnerable human beings are during the epidemic， it is the spirit of art that always inspires them to move on.

Hechunzi Wang pursued her postgraduate study in Stanford University after she got her bachelors degree in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She joined an education startup as a project manager in Silicon Valley after graduation. During the summer holiday of 2019， she became a member of CPAA. She had planned her first trip back to China for the 2020 Spring Festival since 2017， but didnt make it due to COVID-19. Staying in the US alone， her biggest concern was not the living conditions， but her familys constant worry about her. “I didnt expect that so many family members are worried for me， which made me feel more anxious. How I wished I could comfort them.”

Tracy Jiang is a volunteer of CPAA. She has been working at home since the outbreak. As the situation worsened， food purchasing became an important task in daily life. So she and her family bought a big freezer to store enough meat and frozen food so that they did not need go out frequently to secure safe in this special period.

Michelle Shao， a dancer at CPAA， said that she spent 24 hours together with her family every day during the epidemic. The shortening of social distance caused many conflicts between family members inevitably. Her most enjoyable time each day was the moment when she immersed herself in dancing. She even moved the sofa and carpet away in her sitting room to make enough space for dancing comfortably.

CPAA encouraged all the teachers and organizations to provide online classes during the epidemic period. This advice was not fully supported at the very beginning， because the teachers knew that dancing should be taught by deeds instead of words. Obviously online teaching could not fulfill this request. With more and more practice， the teachers overcame the problems in online classes and got with it gradually. Many funny “incidents” occurred during the online training， for example a cat or a dog broke into the picture suddenly， or because of unstable internet， teachers were frozen in the picture with a funny gesture.

The students were the most affected by the COVID-19. Amy was a middle school student. She had been used to studying in school to talk and play with all her classmates face to face. All of a sudden， everything changed. She had to stay at home all day and took many online classes. She met some challenges for her dancing class， which needed more space to practice. So she set up a big screen in the living room to make the most out of the class. Amy was so excellent that she had kept daily practice and even joined a dancing competition during the period. Her success in the competition has undoubtedly inspired others also to pursue their goals proactively even in these difficult times.

Hechunzi Wang， who is also a member of CPAAs dancing troupe， said although her room was not big enough for dancing， she took efforts to make use of any space to practice， such as stretching or other small-scale movements. When she found out that she could perform many dancing-related activities even staying at home， she felt relaxed. She had always missed the days when she could dance in the studio every day， and she believed it would not be long for this day to come back again.

Currently， with all industries recovering gradually， CPAA also tried to start their daily classes. “Its like the first day of school，” Cheryl Talor， an instructor at CPAA， breathed a sigh of relief. “We met everyone and its just like a family reunion. The only regret is that we cannot embrace each other as before.”

In preparation for the reopening of CPAA， the staff members have held several meetings to discuss how to make students and teachers feel safe and comfortable， and more importantly， to abide by the rules of the city and CDC. To this end， a series of safety rules have been formulated. In addition， the staff members also require teachers and students to carry out personal disinfection before and after class to ensure a safe and healthy environment.

For CPAA， the celebration party for its 30 years anniversary will be focused on introducing the Tang dynasty （618-907）. All the members have been highly enthusiastic during the rehearsal. “In the past 30 years， we have never stopped our performance except for the epidemic period this year，” according to Han Feng， its director. “Now we could get together again and embark on a new journey. All these difficulties we met have made us unite together more closely to empower each other. And our persistence also transmitted the spirit of art to our community and even all the people who love art.”