Chinese dancer wins prize for artistry at Olympics of ballet, breaking a new barrier in a career of firsts
Paris Opera Ballet’s first Chinese dancer, Lam Chun-wing, a first-time winner at Varna International Ballet Competition, and his Hong Kong teacher Jean Wong recalls 21-year-old’s ‘extraordinary concentration and hard work’
Lam Chun-wing, the first Chinese dancer to join the Paris Opera Ballet, has won the prize for artistic presentation on stage at a top competition seen as the ballet Olympics.
The 21-year-old is also the first Hong Kong dancer to have entered and won a prize at the Varna International Ballet Competition in Bulgaria.
Hong Kong ballet teacher Jean Wong, who took Lam under her wing when he joined her ballet school at the age of seven, recalls how, as a boy, Lam showed “extraordinary concentration and hard work” even at a young age.
“He consistently received Distinctions in almost all of his Royal Academy of Dance Examinations,” she said. “In 2014 I accompanied him to audition at the Paris Opera Ballet School in Nanterre.
