When Zhan Xinlu started ballet lessons as a 7-year-old, she had no idea where the graceful dancing would take her. In fact, she had little interest in ballet but agreed to indulge her parents, who thought it would improve Zhan's health.

"I was so weak and often got ill," the ballerina, now 26, said during a break from a recent rehearsal in Beijing. "So, my parents sent me to ballet class, though they're not arty people."

However, her flair for dance was soon noticed and, four years later, she left her hometown of Anshan, Liaoning province, to attend the high school affiliated with the Beijing Dance Academy, where she would learn what she needed to make ballet her career.