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   Ballroom dance team woos Chinese    officials, makes impression
    By Christine Jackman
      christine@newsroom.byu.edu
        NewsNet Staff Writer



Photo courtesy of Steven Larsen
Elisabeth Larson from Sandy, Salt Lake County and Leo Mitchelek from Argentina perform a competition medley during a show in Beijing three weeks ago.
The Ballroom Dance Company has left a positive impression of BYU and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on its five-week tour to Asia and Eastern Russia.

President Merrill J. Bateman was in China on university business and used the Ballroom Dance Company's fame to help accomplish some goals.

Lee Wakefield, chairman of the Department of Dance, said President Bateman met the team in three different cities in China. President Bateman would have a formal dinner with ranking officials in China and then take them to watch the Ballroom Dance Company.

"President Bateman and the area presidencies wouldn't come to the shows if it wasn't helpful for them and the church," Wakefield said.

It was very positive for President Bateman to utilize the Ballroom Dance Company to help cement relationships he is working on in China, Wakefield said.

Sandra Rogers, associate academic vice president, who traveled with President Bateman in China, said the Chinese VIPs told President Bateman they were thrilled not just with the dancers' ability, but also their demeanor.

Wakefield said the Ballroom Dance Company is helping to move the work of the LDS Church forward.

"There are five baptisms already scheduled in Russia as a result of the trip," Wakefield said.

In one of the cities in Russia the Russian officer in charge of visas for the missionaries attended the team's performances and a reception afterwards.

The report from the mission president, Alvin Harold Price, was that the officer was so enamored with BYU and the LDS Church that he will make it much easier to move the church forward in that area, Wakefield said.

"President Price said the missionaries will be busy from all the referrals the performances generate," Wakefield said.

The Ballroom Dance Company was asked by the area presidency to tour in Eastern Russia.

It is the first time any BYU performing group has gone to Eastern Russia.

But this was not a first trip to China.

Rex Barrington, assistant director of performing arts management, said the first BYU initiative in China took place in 1979 with one of the BYU performing groups.

Since then there have been 20 BYU performing groups that have returned to China, along with many other academic exchanges with Chinese universities.

"The BYU performing groups have opened up opportunities and helped the name of BYU become known in China," Barrington said.

Rogers said BYU was one of the first North American institutions to take advantage of China opening its doors.

"At a time when China just cracked the door open, BYU performing groups made a marvelous step of friendship," Rogers said.

Rogers said BYU has identified three countries that they hope to give a special focus to. One of those is China.

Bateman was there to get a sense of possible opportunities with BYU in China, Rogers said.

Curt Holman, ballroom dance division director, is going to teach ballroom dance at Guandong University in China.

He said that BYU fits in well with the conservative nature of the Chinese.

"People in China don't even know how to speak English, but they know how to say BYU," he said.

Elisabeth Larson, a graduate student from Sandy, said the Ballroom Dance Company leaves a good impression and is a good way of improving the ties between the university and China

"We can express our testimony through dancing even though we can't express it in words," Larson said.

Larson said when they were in China they turned on the television and saw a performance of the ballroom dance team from seven or eight years ago.

"They filmed the team this year so who knows how long they will be watching it," Larson said.

Rogers said that part of what President Bateman accomplished in China was broadening the perspective that BYU is more than a cultural arts university.

"We are hoping that in 20 years China will know the university for many other things," Rogers said.

Wakefield said music and dance is a powerful communicator.

"I think the Chinese people feel the Spirit we take in there; they don't know what it is, but someday they will know," Wakefield said.

This story was posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2000


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