How do young people in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics embody their spirits?

How do the young people in the opening ceremony embody their spirits?

Zhongguancun No. 2 primary school students participate in the "Snowflake" performance at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics Courtesy photo/Xinhua News Agency

At 8 o'clock last night, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics made a stunning appearance. It is understood that 95% of the participants in the opening ceremony are teenagers, which also conveys the clear concept of "going to the future together". A few days ago, the reporter of Beijing Youth Daily visited the young students who participated in the entrance link, the warm-up link, and the performance link, unveiled the scene of their behind-the-scenes training, and showed their youthful vitality of participating in the Winter Olympics.

Athlete entry guide

Smile shows eight teeth

Raise the card 160 degrees upwards

On the eve of the opening ceremony, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily witnessed the scene of 15 beautiful girls "holding up their cards" at the training ground of the "Athletes' Entrance Guide" at Capital Normal University: they beat the beat over and over again, helping each other correct their movements and expressions. Four months have passed since training on October 2 last year. Their movements have long since gone from zero to increasingly standard.

The responsible teacher of Capital Normal University told the Beiqing Daily reporter that whether it is standing, smiling, marching or lifting, every small detail needs thousands of times of tempering. "Except for school hours, all holidays require more than five or six hours of group training every day, sometimes up to 10 hours, and each action is repeated more than a thousand times. After preliminary calculations, the students have carried out nearly 300 hours of professional training since the beginning of training.

"For example, walking is not so simple." Wang Xuefei, a student at Capital Normal University, revealed that when officially playing, it is necessary for the guides to step on 5 to 7 centimeters of high heels and raise their signs. In order to be able to adapt as soon as possible, the director's training for them is often to wear high heels to practice standing. "Not only that, but standing training also requires every part of the body to stand up." Zhang Xidan, the guide of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and a student of Capital Normal University, is 1.76 meters tall and has almost never worn high heels before, so she specially bought two pairs of 7 cm high heels for daily repeated training.

At the same time, the "standard smile" is not simple for them. In order to be able to make a standard smile and show 8 teeth, the instructors also used the "bite chopsticks" training method in the initial training. "We bit the chopsticks for about two weeks, and now we just smile and unconsciously show 8 teeth." Zhang Xidan said.

Affected by the epidemic, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics requires guides to wear masks to lead. "This also requires us to keep smiling while paying more attention to conveying emotions with our eyes and blinking as little as possible." Wang Xuefei introduced that in the past, in the dormitory, in front of the mirror makeup, now most of the mirror is practiced not to blink, less blink. "When we practice a lot, we will shed tears physiologically."

As a guide, raising a sign is an important task. "Holding up the card allows us to practice until our arms are numb." Wang Xuefei introduced that the height of the guides' lifting cards was not determined at the beginning, from the flat lift to the upward 160 degrees of the card, they practiced thousands of times. "I held the guide card high above my head for hours, and my arms were numb and unconscious."

Zhang Xidan told the Beiqing Daily reporter that there are many professional dance and performance students from Beijing Film Academy, Central Academy of Drama, Beijing Fashion Institute and other colleges and universities in the team, as well as students from different majors in comprehensive colleges, each of whom is the best in the school. However, due to the fierce competition, there are students who are "brushed" every day. Zhang Xidan told the Beiqing Daily reporter that when they first trained on October 2, there were about 300 students from more than a dozen schools in the city, and by the time of training again on October 4, only 123 students were left to train together, and some students were asked to "go home" in the selection. The number of students on the bus from the school also changed from 49 to 15. I'm worried that next time I won't get a chance to get on this bus again. Zhang Xidan said that she understands the significance of this event very well, no one wants to be screened out, and everyone will do their best to stay.

"For each training, the director team will videotape the whole process of our training, and then comment on everyone's every action and state." Zhang Xidan introduced that although she is not from a science class, she has done her best every time she trains. "At the beginning, the director team reminded me that I was a bit slumped during training, and I was particularly depressed, so I immediately bought a full-length mirror and looked for various corrections online. Repeat training, more than 1 hour a day. After a week of training, I finally got rid of the problem of collapsing my waist. ”

Zhang Xidan also revealed that now, on the way to pick up the courier, he often unconsciously walks in the middle of the road, looks up and straightens his chest, keeps a standard smile and walks, and from time to time he will silently count the beats in his heart.

Thinking back to four months of training, "It will be the most memorable memory of my life." I just want to say: I was born at the right time to use my youth to inherit the heavy responsibility of the country, and we are all willing to add a touch of youth to the Beijing Winter Olympics! Wang Xuefei said.

Warm-up performances for students

Find "coordinates" in the nest

Achieve precise positioning

Yesterday's 30-minute performance of "Chinese-style Marching Square Dance" at the opening ceremony also became one of the highlights, and the wonderful performances of students from dozens of universities, primary and secondary schools in the capital made the world feel the sunshine and beauty of youth.

"The 31 students who participated in the warm-up performance needed to jump from the beginning to the end, and each position could not be wrong." Li Xiaolin, a teacher led by Huiwen, told the Beiqing Daily reporter that this is a great challenge for the students. The opening ceremony venue "Bird's Nest" has a large area and children perform more repertoire, and some also need to jump rope on the spot. How to accurately move position? Li Xiaolin mentioned that everyone touched the skill, that is, to find "coordinates", the seat number of the audience in the "Bird's Nest", the entrance to the venue, the pillars in the venue, the light box, the audio, etc. have become the symbols to help the students "card position".

38 students from the first to third year of Beijing No. 2 Middle School also participated in the warm-up program of the Winter Olympics. In the process of performing, they need to cooperate with other primary and secondary school students to complete multiple styling changes. "One of the diamond-shaped shapes, which was jointly completed by the students of the second middle school and the 50 middle school, was very difficult, not only to pose, but also to constantly change the action and position under this shape." Rao Yiyi, the leading teacher of Beijing No. 2 Middle School, introduced that the shape of this diamond shape was modified several times before it was formed, and after molding, the students trained hundreds of times.

The warm-up program should ignite the enthusiasm of the audience, and the students also need to sing and dance. "The warm-up program involved many songs, including the familiar 'Together toward the Future', folk songs, as well as French, Russian and other songs." Rao Yiyi introduced that when the teachers train the children, they will sing to the children in the front, so that they can accompany the music during the training and naturally remember the lyrics. Zhang Ankai, a young student in Huiwen, also has his own know-how in word notation, and he will use recess and breaks to memorize lyrics anytime and anywhere. At the same time, he would also learn foreign songs through the car stereo on the way to school when his father sent him to school. "Listen to it many times and you'll do it." Zhang Ankai said.

The Beiqing Daily reporter learned that the student costumes for the warm-up performance of the Beijing Winter Olympics are designed by each school, and each set of costumes represents the characteristics and connotations of the school. Taking the performance costumes of the students of Beijing No. 2 Middle School as an example, Klein blue tops with white suspender pants were selected in terms of color. "Klein's blue color is bright, which can show the youthful and beautiful style of the children, and the combination of blue and white is very harmonious with the feeling of ice and snow." Rao Yiyi introduced that after the clothes were made, the school found that the performance scene was not bright enough, and it was necessary to add a little decoration of bright diamonds and snowflakes to the costumes. Therefore, the school asked the students who participated in the performance to start themselves. The students automatically divided the work, cut the materials, pasted the decorations, and the senior sister taught the younger siblings to operate, and quickly pasted the decorations. Rao Yiyi said that such an arrangement not only improves the children's hands-on ability, but also makes them cherish their performance costumes more, and their memories of the Beijing Winter Olympics are more special.

500 "Peace Doves" actors

Perform every action in the performance

It's all "original" for kids.

At the opening ceremony, accompanied by the music of "Snowflakes", 500 "peace doves" played by primary school students in the capital entered the venue, which instantly attracted everyone's attention. Dressed in traditional elemental costumes, they swing their bodies casually and happily, vividly expressing the innocence, liveliness and cuteness of Chinese children.

The Beiqing Daily reporter learned that the 500 primary school students who played the role of peace doves were from many primary schools in the capital, and 40 children from the second primary school in Zhongguancun were among them. Guo Jianyun, the teacher of the second small group in Zhongguancun, introduced that everyone saw that the children performed different actions on the field, which is the intention of the director group. "This show wants children to express their emotions with their own actions, to express the innocent, free and happy side, so each action is designed by the children themselves."

The children's own design of the action is not a random design, but a design under the premise of fully understanding the meaning of the song, in order to help the children "eat through" the song "Snowflake", the teachers ask the children to write the sense of listening, first use words to express their understanding of the song. Subsequently, the children use physical movements to integrate themselves into the mood of the song. Teacher Guo Jianyun revealed that he will let each child listen carefully to the melody in front of him, and if the child can't help but smile, it means that the child understands the song. From this, the corresponding dance movements are created.

After the children make up their own movements, they also need the teachers to fix the movements little by little. "As teachers, we have to cut the movements of the children, how fast the hands are outstretched, whether there is tension or breathing. Eventually, the children's self-made movements are fixed to form muscle memory. Guo Jianyun said that the most difficult thing in dance rehearsal is improvisation, 40 children have 40 sets of different movements, need to be tutored one by one, over and over again. It is worth mentioning that in this show, the director team used the latest "motion capture" system, when the children walked into the venue, the cool motion capture system on the floor screen cooperated with the children to randomly capture the performance screen, which added a bit of impactful beauty.

"The average age of the children who participate in the performances in our school is only 10 years old, and they train repeatedly on every rhythm and every movement on the stage, reaching hundreds of times." Guo Jianyun said. But after the hard work is the harvest, the students all said that they are very proud to participate in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, and they will pay more attention to winter sports in the future.

Article/Reporter Wu Wenjuan

Video/Reporter Guo Qian

Source: Beijing Youth Daily