广场舞引入外援! 美国退休教师'中毒太深'

There are about 100 million middle-aged women dancing in parks and on squares in China, and Debrah Roundy, a retired U.S. school teacher, is one of them.

在中国的公园里、广场上，约有1亿中年妇女在跳广场舞，而美国退休教师德布拉·罗迪就是其中一员。

Mrs. Roundy is the only foreigner on the Shanghai dance team at Tongji University, where she is currently teaching English.

罗迪是同济大学（她目前在该校教英语）上海舞蹈队中唯一一名外国人。

Mrs. Roundy stumbled upon a dozen or so middle-aged women dancing to the tunes of Chinese songs in 2012. At the time, she felt unaccustomed to the new environment and wanted to have some fun in her life. She was invited to join the dancing team.

2012年的时候，罗迪偶然发现十几个中年妇女在中文歌曲的伴奏下跳舞。当时她对新环境还不太熟悉，想找一点儿乐趣。后来她便被邀请加入了该舞蹈队。

At first, Mrs. Roundy communicated with her teammates by exchanging notes or by asking her Chinese students to help translate for her. Now she uses a translation app on her iPad.

最开始，罗迪通过交换笔记、请自己的学生帮忙翻译的办法和舞蹈队的队员们交流。而现在她用的是自己iPad里的翻译软件。

Language is not the most difficult thing for her, masting Chinese dance is. Mrs. Roundy used to do ballet. She said dancers in the U.S. always dance facing the audience. But in China, they change directions all the time, and it was very confusing for her at first.

对她来说语言并不是最困难的事情，掌握中国的舞蹈才是。罗迪曾经跳过芭蕾，她表示，美国的舞者总是面向观众表演，但是在中国，人们总是在改变方向，刚开始这让她非常困惑。

After day-to-day learning from her teammates and lots of practice, Mrs. Roundy is now confident enough to dance in the middle of the team, and she sometimes shows them American dance steps.

在和队友们日复一日的学习、以及自己的大量练习之后，罗迪现在已经拥有了足够的信心在队伍中间跳舞，而她有时还会展示自己的美国舞步。

Square dancing opens a window for her to understand China, Mrs. Roundy said. Besides dancing, she and her husband have been active in community life, teaching English, and helping elderly neighbors.

罗迪称，广场舞为她打开了一扇了解中国的窗户。除了跳舞以外，她和丈夫也一直积极参与社区生活、教英语、帮助年老的邻居。