1 . To American ears, hearing the words “Black Grace” used together makes them feel a kind of quiet strength in times of hardship or perhaps a positive cultural stereotype (刻板印象). To choreographer Neil Ieremia, the words represent the joining of two ideas born from personal and cultural conflict.

In New Zealand, where Ieremia grew up in what he describes as “a fairly tough town” northeast of Wellington, black was used to describe brave, daring behavior. In Ieremia’s youth, brave people were called “black”, linking them to the neighborhood’ s heroes, New Zealand’ s great All Blacks, the national rugby (橄榄球) team.

Ieremia was born in New Zealand to Samoan immigrants who arrived in the country during the 1960s. Illnesses kept him from actively participating in the country’s widespread sports culture. This was difficult for a Pacific Island boy living in a neighborhood where boys were expected to be sporty and tough. In this world, he developed a passion for music.

At the age of 19, Ieremia decided to attend dance school. At his first ballet class, the instructor told him he lacked grace. Ieremia wasn’t discouraged. When he started his own dance company in 1995, he looked to his own experiences for a name that would also reflect his ambitions for dance grace and storytelling. Thus Black Grace was born. Since then, he has changed the face of modern dance in New Zealand and turned Black Grace into one of the most recognizable and successful cultural brands.

In the early years of Black Grace, Ieremia struggled with the conflict between Samoan and New Zealand cultures. Questions of how and where one belongs were at the forefront of his work. Ieremia draws inspiration from his Samoan and New Zealand roots to create innovative dance works that reach across social, cultural and generational barriers. The work itself is highly physical, rich in the storytelling traditions of the South Pacific, and expressed with unique beauty and power.

2 . When Soares was a young boy growing up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, his family didn’t have the means to pay for extracurricular activities. However, they found a solution by signing him up for a free circus school that aimed to keep him off the streets and out of trouble. It was there that Soares discovered his passion for performance art, including acrobatics, capoeira, acting, and clowning. Ballet never crossed his mind as a practical career option, as ballet wasn’t a noticeable dance form in Brazil at the time.

At the age of 12, Soares began dancing but not in the traditional sense. His older brother was part of a hip-hop street dance group, and Soares started hanging out with them. He soon combined his circus school skills with hip-hop and capoeira to create a unique style that fascinated audiences in Rio.

One day, the head of a Brazilian dance company saw Soares perform and arranged for him to selection for a dance school. He was awarded a scholarship that covered his tuition fees, and he began studying modern dance. However, it wasn’t long before everyone believed that Soares should switch to ballet. He was immediately put on a fast track, attending academic school in the mornings and ballet classes in the evenings.

Soares’ parents were hesitant about their son pursuing ballet as a career. They were worried about his grades and whether ballet would provide him with a stable future. Soares shared their concerns and had never known anyone who pursued ballet professionally.

Despite these reservations, something incredible happened within two years of Soares starting ballet training. He participated in the Paris International Dance Competition and won a silver medal. This achievement was even more impressive considering that most of his competitors had been studying ballet since childhood. After Paris, Soares joined the national ballet company in Brazil and began earning money from his dancing.

Three years later, he went on to win the gold medal at the Moscow International Competition, previously won by legendary ballet dancers like Mikhail Baryshnikov.

3 . South Africa does have a calendar filled with more festivals than most people can think of. In fact, many of these festivals have won international popularity.

Aardklop Arts Festival

Every year during the last week of September, the southern region of the northwest province prepares itself for one of the country’s greatest cultural festivals. Held in the university town of Potchefstroom with its thousands of students, it offers a five-day feast of classical music, jazz, hard rock, visual arts, poetry and more, ending with the “OppiAarde” rock festival on the final day.

Grahamstown National Arts Festival

At the end of June each year Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape is transformed into one huge happening for a period of 11 days, when the Grahamstown National Arts Festival gets underway. It’ s a national phenomenon of arts. The festival offers more than 500 shows from opera, drama and jazz to stand-up comics and folk music.

Arts Alive International Festival

The Arts Alive International Festival , held in Johannesburg every September since 1992, is an annual festival of music, dance, theatre and performance-poetry. Over 600 artists take part in the four-day festival, which consists of a musical feast, dance performances and events , poetry readings , theatrical productions, and workshops. The festival ends with the popular “Jazz on the Lake“ held on the final day.

Cape Town Jazz Festival

Since its birth in the year 2000, the Cape Town Jazz Festival has grown into a successful international event. Arguably the best jazz festival in Africa, it takes place in Cape Town every last weekend in March. It features around 40 international and local artists. Performances are held on stages in exhibition halls throughout Cape Town, including one free , open-air show.

4 . It was a Thursday night in September. Classes were done for the day, homework was complete for the night and excitement for the weekend began to stir (萌动). It was 9:00 pm and music filled the house with the upstairs hallway used as a dance floor. My roommate Lucy and I danced in the hallway with the booming music for an hour.

It was within that one hour that I realized how the world around me had stopped. Thoughts of how busy the weekend was going to be and the homework that was due Monday slipped away. It was just me, my roommate, our music and our hallway. It wasn’t until that night that I realized the importance of dancing it out and why everyone should try it.

Dance has always been a significant part of my life. I have loved to dance ever since I was little, and I had the honor of being on two competitive dance teams as a teenager. But dancing on stage feels different from dancing in your living room with the volume (音量) turned up and not having a care in the world if people walking past the window can see you.

When dancing in your hallway, imperfection is a priority. There’s no conveying emotions to the audience. There’s just releasing emotions. The feeling is freeing. When you dance it out, it’s just you and your music. No one is there to judge you. You can live in the moment, not worrying about the future.

So the next time you feel stressed, get up and turn on your favorite music. Let the music move you and free you. Sometimes in life, when you don’t feel like you have control of anything, you’ve to dance it out because you’re in control of the music.

Nanyin is a form of ancient Chinese music. It dates back to the Han Dynasty     1     people from Central Plains of ancient China brought their music to Quanzhou, Fujian province. Later it mixed     2     the local music.

Nanyin is     3    (traditional) played by a group of five people. The singer, who also plays the wooden clapper (拍板) to keep the beat, stands in the middle of the other four. Usually, on the left are two musicians who play a bamboo flute     4    (call) dongxiao and erxian while on the right are two musicians     5    (play) pipa and sanxian. As for the unique singing style, which is usually sung in the southern Fujian dialect (方言), every song tells a story.

However, Nanyin was nearly destroyed during     6     Mid-nineteenth century. Despite     7    (survive), the art lost a lot of its audience. It has taken the Quanzhou local government more than 38 million yuan     8    (preserve) and develop Nanyin since 2004. In order to pass down this cultural heritage, schools in Quanzhou have made Nanyin a course that students in kindergarten and primary schools can take. Now Four hundred Nanyin     9     (club) in Quanzhou have more than 7,000 players.

In 2009, Nanyin     10    (list) as intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO. “We sincerely hope that more teenagers can join us in breathing new life into this culture,” said Mr. Chen, chairman of Quanzhou Nanyin Artists Association.

6 . SUMMER CAMP 2024 REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

Welcome to the USF Youth Experiences summer camp, where music meets technology! In this camp, you will have the opportunity to explore your creativity by making music using computers, iPads, DJ decks, guitars, ukuleles, drumsets, keyboards, and vocals.

Led by Haley Garrett and Dr. David Williams from the School of Music at the University of South Florida, this camp is designed for those who have no related experience in music but want to learn skills. We will guide you through the process of songwriting, beat writing, and rapping.

Camp Details:

During the camp, you will work with a small group of peers to create your own unique sound and perform as part of a team. All the equipment you need will be provided, so all you need to bring is your creativity and enthusiasm.

Our experienced instructors will teach you how to use various tools and techniques to produce your music, from using software to playing instruments. You will learn about different genres of music and explore how to incorporate them into your own music.

Above all, this camp is designed to be fun! You will have a great time making music with new friends and discovering your own musical talents. Join us for an unforgettable summer experience and let’s make some amazing music together!

Camp Directors: Dr. David Williams and Haley Garrett

Format: In-person

Register: Now

Location: USF Tampa Campus

Grade Levels: Entering 7th–12th grade

Learning Time: 9:00 am -3:00 pm EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)

Music Tech Lab Dates:

The HK Phil hosts its free annual outdoor music performance, Swire Symphony Under The Stars every year, always attracting over 15,000 people diving deep into specific orchestral work under the night sky. You can bring your families and friends to enjoy the wonderful feast of music.

●Time

On 18 February 2024

●Programme

RAVEL|Piano Concerto (协奏曲)

The event runs around 60 minutes without intervals.

●Public registration starts at 10 a.m. on 24 January 2024.

●Each email address may register for a maximum of 2 tickets and can only register once.

●Please sign up for an account on POPTICKET in advance in order to complete all details within the limited time.

●Each ticket with a unique QR code only allows one person, regardless of age.

●Please show the QR code on your smartphone or printed ticket for admission. Do not fold or draw across it.

●Anyone in possession of any forbidden items or does not follow the rules of the venue (场所) will be refused the entry.

●In case of bad weather, postponement will be announced at 4 p.m. through the website hkphil.org and Facebook page. The event will be postponed to the next day, same time and same venue.

●Parking spaces are not available at the venue.

●Please bring your own mat, food and drinks to enjoy the starry night.

Guqin is a traditional musical instrument. It     1     (exist) for over 3,000 years and represents China’s foremost solo musical instrument tradition.     2     (describe) in early literary sources and confirmed by archaeological finds, this ancient instrument is inseparable     3     Chinese intellectual history. Guqin playing developed as an art form practised by noblemen and     4     (scholar) in intimate settings, and was therefore never intended for public performance. Furthermore, along with calligraphy, painting and weiqi, guqin was one of the four arts, which Chinese were expected     5     (master) in ancient times. According to tradition, twenty years of training were required to attain proficiency.

Its music     6     (list) as an intangible cultural heritage in 2008, which helped unlock the passion of many to learn     7     ancient instrument. Jian was one of them. His interest in the instrument grew after he listened to an album by a famous guqin master. Jian started playing the instrument in his     8     (fifty) and embarked on a journey to look for collectible items across China. To his disappointment, he quickly discovered that many collectors lacked the ability to play guqin themselves, resulting in many being stored away in warehouses. He even came across some of the instruments lying in a state of utter damage,     9     pained him deeply.

With the aim of preserving and utilizing (利用) the centuries-old relics more     10     (effective), Jian began learning how to restore the instrument under the guidance of a guqin repair expert.