Photo: Nfdaily.cn

It was the very last dress rehearsal for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony, and only days before the crowning glory of any dancer’s career. It was as if Liu Yan (刘岩) had been training her entire life for this one moment. For Liu, the solo dance center stage in the Bird’s Nest was meant to be her moment in the spotlight.

But it was not meant to be as tragedy conspired against her in the form of a faulty stage fitting during the last rehearsal that sent her tumbling 3 meters to the ground below. This caused her to badly injure herself from the waist down.

It is only now that the glory days of the Olympic Games are over that Liu feels she can speak out and let the world know her story. Beijing Youth Weekend caught up with Liu Yan and asked her what it’s like to go from being one of China’s most celebrated dancers, to being confined to a wheelchair.

Beijing Youth (BJY): During the award ceremony, Zhang Yimou (the Director of the Opening Ceremony) said that he still has the recording of the moment you injured yourself, but that he still hasn’t worked up the courage to give it to you, how did you feel when you heard these words?

Liu Yan: When I heard him say that I felt quite shocked, I wasn’t expecting him to talk about me. Even if he did give me the recording, I’m not sure I’d watch it, at least not for the time being.

BJY: Why shocked, you knew he had the recording?

Liu Yan: He hadn’t said anything to me, he had thought about letting my friends give me the recording. At the time a friend of mine told him that if I need it, he will contact Zhang and get it off him. When they told me about the arrangement, I didn’t know what to say.

BJY: Did you watch the live broadcast of the Opening Ceremony?

Liu Yan: No, I didn’t. I talked it over with my friends and family and they thought that the dance solo part would get to me too much. The thing was the hospital I was in was very close to the Bird’s Nest, so I could still hear and see the fireworks. My family surrounded me and tried to keep me occupied by chatting to me, and I had my headphones in during the fireworks, but I could still catch a glimpse of them.

BJY: When could you bring yourself to watch the Opening Ceremony?

Liu Yan: About three months afterwards, but not all the way through, I just picked out bits like the ‘Moving Character Blocks’, ‘Taichi’ and stuff like that.

BJY: What about the dance solo?

Liu Yan: Yes, I watched that part (laughing)!

BJY: How did you feel watching that?

Liu Yan: Regret. Partly because it wasn’t me dancing it, and partly because the whole section seemed toned down. I had been chosen by Zhang Yimou especially, and I knew exactly the type of emotion that everyone wanted to see put into the piece.

BJY: This was originally your big moment and in the end you didn’t get to dance it, how does this make you feel?

Liu Yan: (5 second’s silence) I honestly can’t say that I am jealous, jealousy is not the right word to sum up how I was feeling. By that stage it didn’t matter who performed the dance. My name will always be connected to the Beijing Olympics, perhaps even more so because of the accident; otherwise I might just have been another performer. Obviously I would have preferred it not have happened, but it did.

Photo: ihunantv.com

Liu Yan remains wheelchair bound to this day with doctors unable to say with any certainty when or if she will walk again. Liu is determined to recover, at least to be free of the wheelchair, but her professional dancing days are over.

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