Welfare program helps girl realize dancing dream

Later, she and her husband Guan Yu, a teacher at Beijing Dance Academy, decided to start a program called "Colorful Cloud Plan" to help poor children in mountainous regions change their lives.

Every summer and winter vacation, they come back to Naduo village to teach girls for free. They also invite local teachers and volunteers for free instruction. In 2019, Zhang quit her job in Beijing, set up a training center in the village and put nearly all the couple's savings into the endeavor.

"Ballet is a noble art. A noble spirit is to help disadvantaged groups to fulfill our social responsibility," Guan said at a speech in Tsinghua University.

After watching videos of Wu dancing, Zhang and Guan realized they were witnessing a talent. Soon they went to Wu's home to see her and decided to teach her.

"She is the most talented girl I have met during my 30 years' of teaching," Guan said. "She is like a rare jade presented to me, and I feel flustered because I fear I can't help her to get to the level I had hoped for."

Since then, Wu Gangyun went to learn dancing with Zhang every weekend. Guan would fly to the village from Beijing to teach them during winter and summer vacation.

In October 2019, Wu Gangyun and other girls in the "Colorful Cloud Program" performed on the stage of CCTV. It was the first time for them to take trains or planes, visit a big city and performed on stage. Guan and Zhang also took them to visit Beijing Dance Academy.

"I want to be a dancer in the future and I want to be a person like teacher Zhang," said Wu Gangyun.

Over the years, the "Colorful Cloud Program" has helped 62 children from 17 villages get recruited by art schools in Yunnan. The couple also found ways to cover tuition fees and living expenses.

"If we don't train them, they would go feeding pigs or herding cattle. Now they can at least earn a secondary school diploma," Zhang Ping said. She said she hopes the children can help more people in the mountainous region, and function as dandelion seeds.