Art school offers amateurs a chance
11/8/2004 15:13
Surrounded by trees and plants, a three-story building on Julu Road,
Jing'an District, is just one of the many old Western-style architectures that
scatter the city.
In 1992, Wang Weiqiang converted the building into the
Yindu Artist College, the city's first weekend art school that offers
professional art education.
"There are very few theater or music related
professional academies in the country yet there are a lot of young people who
bear the dream of becoming a star," said the young headmaster. "I want to help
them to make the dream come true."
During the past 12 years, hundreds of
thousands of students have taken specially designed training courses in the
school. Many of them have won prizes in various competitions and become famous
stars in different areas, both at home and abroad.
"Thanks to these excellent
students, we have been successful in building a good image for Yindu," Wang
said. "The school is highly acknowledged by society despite the fact that there
are more and more schools of the same kind nowadays."
He added that the
powerful faculty is also crucial to Yindu's success.
Currently, the school
offers courses in four main categories including movie and video performance
(for adults and children separately), singing and dancing.
Most of the
teachers are selected from well-known colleges such as Shanghai Theater Academy
and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
An efficient teaching system and some
unique teaching methods, which are ideal for amateur art school learners, have
been gradually formed during the past years.
"We try to help students develop
to the full according to their own characteristics," he said. "We teach them
individually to ensure they get the academic knowledge and experiences as soon
as possible."
When niu Ben, a seven-year-old boy, applied to enter Yindu six
years ago, he was no different from other children. It was the teachers there
who found the unlimited imagination in him and gave him training designed to
stimulate his potential. Now he has become a famous child star and won the
Golden Calf Award twice, an award held every other year to recognize excellent
children's films and individuals around the country.
Wang said that Yindu not
only provides students with high-standard education in performance, vocalism and
body, but also prepares them to become professional artists from the
psychological aspect.
"Nowadays, more and more students come to our school
not in the hope of becoming a star, but simply wanting to learn more skills as
well as gain more life experience," he said.
According to him, performance is
such an art that helps people to enlarge their perspective towards life and
encourages them to think about a certain situation from different
angles.
"What's more, sometimes it helps people to gain confidence in
themselves," he said.
Once a young teacher from a local university entered
Yindu for performance courses. Handsome as he is, he was very shy about talking
to people at first.
"He told me that he was thinking of changing his job to
become an actor, as at that time his lectures were always too dull to lure
students," Wang said. "However, after half a year's training, the young man
regained his confidence and become very attractive both in looks and in
characteristics. He has received warm welcome by students since then and decided
to continue his teaching career."
These days a new course at Yindu is under
preparation, designed to help children to learn English by watching
movies.
"Children should not be forced to learn a second language. What we
want to do is to create a delightful study environment for them, to encourage
them and to arouse their interests both in English and in performance."
The
school has already invited two professional teachers from the United States to
launch the course.
A mini theater is also under construction in the building.
When completed, it will become the classroom for the new course and also an
ideal place for students to give graduation performances in the future.
Michelle zhang
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