SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Gold Winner Marilyn Yang: ‘I Have a Bigger Responsibility to Revive This Culture’

Sep 13, 2021

Shen Yun Performing Arts’ Marilyn Yang won the Gold Award at the 9th NTD International Classical Chinese Dance Competition, which took place Sept. 2–5 in New York state.

“This is something that can only motivate me to work harder in my profession,” she said. “In dance, there’s no such thing as ‘perfect’ or ‘you’ve reached your limit.’”

“What comes with winning gold is the responsibility to do better and to bring the highest art form I can ... to bring back this lost heritage to people around the world,” she said.

The classical Chinese dance competition is one in a series of international cultural and arts events aimed at promoting traditional culture. In China, this culture has been all but destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party over the past several decades. The events are hosted by NTD.

“I feel like after winning, I just have a bigger responsibility to revive this culture,” she said. Shen Yun has made the art form of classical Chinese dance well known around the world, and its mission of reviving 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture is one that is close to Yang’s own heart.

Dance is definitely something not easy to do, you have to train hard. I think what's important is to keep a humble heart and look at how you can improve.

— Marilyn Yang

“Dance is definitely something not easy to do, you have to train hard. I think what’s important is to keep a humble heart and look at how you can improve,” she said.

The competition was a prime opportunity to do so, as she could watch and learn from over 100 other dancers.

“No matter how professional someone may seem, they can always learn something from someone who is new at something, and they can learn from the people around them,” she said.

“I learned more about myself, through exploring choreographing, and I explored more characters and things I’m not used to,” Yang said. “This time for the dance competition, I really learned how to push myself and break the barriers I thought I was limited to. I think that it'll help me in my future path in dancing.”

With reporting by NTDTV.