The Gold Medal Mindset:
Shen Yun Principle Dancer Monty Mou

English text by June Fakkert

For classical Chinese dancer Monty Mou, competitions are not something he does for medals or recognition, but rather as a way to challenge himself.

“To me it’s a form of learning. I don’t really like competing for the sake of winning,” he said.

When he won senior division gold in 2018 in an international classical Chinese dance competition, he didn’t see the win as a peak, but as validation of the self-discipline and work he had done prior to the competition. In two previous competitions, he had won silver in both the junior and senior divisions.

As a principal dancer with the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, Shen Yun Performing Arts, Mou explained that his own personal measure of success is how well he is able to bring forth his best every day—especially during the challenging times. To accomplish this, he fills his life with things that have a positive effect on him. “You really have to enrich yourself,” he told Elite Lifestyle Magazine.

He explained that for him, dancing is not solely his career but also a way of life, one that requires humility. “I feel like being humble is an extremely important quality to have as a dancer and as a person. It’s like Socrates said, ‘I know I know nothing.'” Mou said that even his performances where he had won medals could be elevated further, but this was not discouraging for him because it provided motivation to push himself further.

Great Teachers

Mou said that over the years his dance instructors have given him much more than just dance instructions, and he credits his success to their help. “Everything I’ve learned I feel like someone else gave to me,” he said.

Years before, Mou never wanted to dance in front, preferring the anonymity of the back. But early on, one of his dance instructors sensed his potential and would force him to be in the front line during practice. Mou recalled that this made him very uncomfortable at the time, but the tactic worked, and he’s no longer shy about taking center stage. Moreover, he now really appreciates that his teacher had faith in him and helped to push him further.

“When I look back I’m actually really, really grateful. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to do a lot of things I’m able to do today.”

He said that after years of facing the pressures of practice and performance, he has come to see pressure as a good thing. This is because in order to meet the challenges, he’s had to rise to new heights. Now he’s able to operate on a very different plane than before.

Again, the key to dealing with pressure better, he said, is in elevating his mind. Elevation allows him to handle himself better under stress. It also helps him make better decisions fast—which is often needed on performance tours.

Enrichment for Mou comes through studying, researching, reading books, and this includes classic philosophy from both the East and West, as well as watching films and documentaries that portray cultural values and new ideas.

“I like to watch and read things that make me go, ‘Oh, I never thought of that before,’” he said. He likes to read difficult texts—like Greek Stoic philosophers—where he has to read a sentence more than once in order to grasp its meaning.

“You need to go through a certain amount of hardship to gain perspective,” he added.

Handling hardship and pressure well is a skill he tries to pass on to younger students, as now he is a class assistant. “I try to motivate them to enjoy the process,” he said, which in a classical Chinese dance class means hours of painful stretching. Mou has learned that a good attitude toward stress has great rewards. “The suffering you feel will end, so enjoy it while you can. If you can enjoy the suffering, you will feel very satisfied afterward,” he said, speaking from experience.

In addition to just pushing him in class, Mou said, his teachers and senior students have helped him develop his own life philosophy.

“It’s not simply that the teachers are teaching you how to dance; they’re teaching you how to be a good person. They’ll share with you music that sounds good. They’ll share books and movies that are good, and even how to eat more healthy.” He added that some of them really took him under their wing, looking after him like a brother. Mou now tries to take care of his younger students in the same way and leads by motivating rather than commanding.

“Commands never change a person’s heart,” he said. And, as illustrated above, there is a time and place for pushing and striving. Mou prefers to motivate others by challenging them to be their best.

Different Realm of Thought and Feeling

Every time Mou learns something new, it’s like a window opens and he can see into the distance—how much more he has yet to learn. He said that dancing has also made him much more deeply aware of his emotions and the nuances in them. He’s found the mundane tasks of rehearsal to be transformative. And the cultural immersion he’s had during his study of classical Chinese dance has left him with the feeling that modern life doesn’t leave people enough time and space or the right mindset to deeply appreciate beauty.

“Nowadays people are very numb to things … when they see something beautiful they feel it’s nice, but it’s not, ‘Oh it’s nice, I should write a poem!’” he said.

For example, in the past people might see the moon and think of its light as an expression of divine light here to guide humankind through darkness, but nowadays people are more likely to see it and think it has some holes in it, he explained.

The character that won him the gold medal was that of Li Bai, China’s most famous general-cum-poet, who wrote some of his most famous verses inspired by the moon. Mou explained that as he’s researched historical characters in order to portray them, he’s come to see the world through very different eyes, and this has made him more aware of the beauty not only within but also around him.