Liu Yan is a classical Chinese dancer, choreographer, stage director, and professor at the

Beijing Dance Academy The Beijing Dance Academy (BDA, ) is a municipal public professional dance college at Haidian District, Haidian, Beijing. The academy is the highest institution for dance education and assessment in the People's Republic of China, conducting the ...

. She has performed in many dance dramas and won many dance competitions in and outside

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Early life

Liu had a passion for classical Chinese dance during her childhood. She started dancing at the age of nine. When she was ten years old, Liu gained admission to the Beijing Dance Academy middle school. In 1993, when she was eleven years old, she entered the Beijing Dance Academy middle school. Liu enrolled at the

at the age of eighteen. She studied professional dancing with a major in classical Chinese dance. She graduated in 2003.

Career

Liu has performed in the 2007

CCTV New Year's Gala The ''CMG New Year's Gala'', formerly known as the ''CCTV New Year's Gala'', also known as the ''Spring Festival Gala'', and commonly abbreviated in Chinese as ''Chunwan'' (), is a Chinese New Year special produced by China Media Group (CMG). I ...

, alongside some of China's most famous people. She has also won some of the nation's most prestigious awards for dance and drama. Liu was chosen to be the lead dancer in the "

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

" segment at the Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony. On 27 July, twelve days before the actual performance, she fell from a malfunctioning moving platform during an evening rehearsal at the

Beijing National Stadium The National Stadium (), the Bird's Nest (), is a stadium at Olympic Green in Chaoyang, Beijing, Chaoyang, Beijing, China. The National Stadium, covering an area of 204,000 square meters with an 80,000 person capacity (91,000 with temporary ...

. She was rushed to a local military hospital where she underwent six hours of surgery. The accident resulted in nerve and spinal damage, which paralyzed her lower body. In March 2010, Liu established the ''Liu Yan Arts Special Fund'' to help children living in poverty, orphans, and migrant workers' children through arts education. Since March 2010, she has been giving classes at the

. As reported in 2012, she pursued a doctorate degree in dance theory at the

. As a professor at the Beijing Dance Academy, she is also devoted to dance movement therapy. In 2016, Liu published a book titled ''Dance with Hands: Research of the Hand Dance in Chinese Classical Dances'', detailing her research about hand gestures in classical Chinese dance. On 18 June 2021, Liu staged her directorial debut with the dance drama ''Jing Yan'' at the Century Theater in Beijing. This is the first dance drama produced by the dance studio that Liu launched in 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Yan 1982 births Chinese female dancers Chinese dancers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Educators from Beijing People with paraplegia Dancers with disabilities Chinese people with disabilities Scholars and academics with disabilities Beijing Dance Academy alumni Chinese choreographers Chinese women choreographers