These are photographs taken in Malibu of my ballet student, a Chinese orphan who is soon beginning a professional dance career.
A Chinese infant, the second child, is born into extreme poverty in a remote village; her mother knows she cannot keep her. Yet, she adores her tiny daughter, who is a sweet and delicate beauty. Her husband orders her to place the newborn in the woods to die. Heartbroken and sobbing, the young mother tenderly wraps her baby in a soft cloth, places her in a basket, and starts slowly toward the woods. Suddenly, a fervent spirit rises within her. She decides to risk everything and turns around to make the journey to the town of Yinchuan. After a few hours, she places her precious newborn on the doorstep of a police station. The child miraculously lives and is brought to an orphanage. As she grows, the nurses note that whenever music is played, she laughs and sways delightedly. They cannot help but dote on this unusual and enchanting little girl.
Meanwhile, across a vast indigo ocean, a married couple in Los Angeles loses an infant son to SIDS. To ease the pain of this unbearable tragedy, they decide to adopt a baby from China. Finally, after a year of endless paperwork, they travel to an orphanage in Jiangxi Provence, nine hundred miles from Bejing. Amidst the scores of screaming children, they see one lovely little girl who cries louder than the others. They choose her and bring her home to America. She is named Leili, which means “beautiful flower†in Mandarin.
Leili has a joyous childhood with her parents and older brother. At a young age, her parents enroll her in dance and music classes. Soon it is apparent that this is no ordinary child…she is extremely gifted, and it is obvious that she will, one day, dance professionally. Major ballet companies eventually notice her, and by the age of fourteen, several of the best in the country are inviting her to attend their schools.
I am Leili’s ballet teacher, and I took these photos of her in Malibu, the week before she left to dance at the official school of the San Francisco Ballet. It was sunset, and as she looked out to sea, toward the distant land of her birth, it was especially poignant. The Pacific Ocean separates, while somehow connects, Leili to the loving birth mother she never knew. Leili dances on the California shore and anticipates a life as a professional ballerina, due the love and sacrifices of her adopted mother.
Between morning and night, the stars fall into the Pacific Ocean.
The everlasting sun lets the waves sound, with the soft foam of light snow.
The sea sings songs of oblivion…I am like the wind
Which touches the fresh and full morning.
The ocean knows many songs…
The waves carry my dreams, unforgotten, of the past.
Sea gulls will bring me the future, with a fresh, and quiet voice.
In silent nights the music of the sea resounds, then stars arise to shine anew.
(Poem excerpts from Bert Knop)