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photo from Zhejiang Daily  

translated from...Zhejiang Daily newspaper…2010-01-03

Dance and Music,Celebrate the Precious Time of Youth
-An Interview with the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta on their first trip to China

Hangzhou,3rd in January
“We’ve come to make the world feel better !" 23 American young people of  Youth Ensemble of Atlanta (YEA) will give wonderful performance in Hangzhou Grand Theater tonight with this enthusiastic song during their first trip to China.Melodrama,hip hop dance,Christmas song--this group of youth's professional concord,enthusiastic dance,amazing expressive force on the stage will let the whole theater be full of vigor.

YEA has been awarded “Coming Up Taller” award from the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities and has given performance to more than 1 million audience in America,Europe,Africa.Whereas,this professional performance group's members are young people,mainly middle school students who take part in it during their spare time.What kind of organization on earth YEA is?How can they cultivate this kind of youth's group?With lots of questions,reporter saw a unique American style's "Youth of Songs and Dances".

"Our goal is not to create great shows or produce talented artists,YEA’s primary programming goal is to develop youth with the skills and desire to succeed at whatever they do in life. "The leader of YEA,Debi told our reporter when having an exclusive  interview.

According to what Debi has introduced,YEA was founded in 1990,an organization which offers free free performance trainings to young people.And the only judgement of whether people can join in it or not is depending on whether they have the enthusiasm for music and art and the persistence in it for a very long time.Now,YEA's members come from different schools in Atlanta,aging from 8 to 24.They rehearsal and perform during weekends and festivals.What's more,Debi said some of the members have already won Grammy,some joined in Broadway,some are producing movies and more than 80% members work in the artistic area after graduation from colleage.

In China,many parents are worried that if their children are fond of art too much,academic study may be ignored.Consequently,children will be good at nothing.Parents in the US are seemingly worried about it too.But YEA's children have proved to their parents that their choices are right.Diamond,a 13 years old member of YEA knows her own mind.She said sometimes members of YEA need to sacrifice their sleep in order to focus both on art and academic study at the same time.Apart from performance and rehearsal,she is learning how to play electronic organ in her spare time.What's more,she is trying to create her own music.

To encourage young people to create and focus on social problems is an important way of YEA on helping children grow up."Creativity and social responsibility are of vital importance in any area in the society."YEA always offers opportunities to children to produce issue-oriented play,including local violence,AIDS and so on.Some members of YEA nowadays who have already entered into college told the reporter that what they learned from YEA is not only art but self-management.Among them,some study film,some study psychology,some study public relations,but they still remain in YEA because they can feel love and strength here.

Click to See the Article
from the Youth Times

Youth Ensemble of Atlanta

9 Gammon Avenue | Atlanta, Georgia 30315

P: 404.756.2184