Lam Chun-wing, Hongkonger storming the classical ballet world
Teenager's securing of contract as the Paris Opera Ballet's first Chinese dancer after four years of hard training is highlight of Jean M Wong's 55 years as a dance teacher, she says of ex-pupil
In 2011, Lam Chun-wing won a place at the Paris Opera Ballet School. He was then 14, the son of an engineer and primary school teacher. He'd just finished form three at STFA Lee Shau Kee College in Kwai Tsing, he liked listening to Leona Lewis and he loved Black Swan. Of Natalie Portman's unhinged striving for perfection, he once said: "I cried. It took half an hour to calm down - that movie takes your heart out."
He was a little shy, jet-lagged and sneezy after two weeks of summer school with the Royal Ballet in London, where he'd been desperately homesick. He knew no French. This writer, who interviewed him at the Jean M. Wong School of Ballet's headquarters in North Point (he'd started at the school's Tsuen Wan studio, aged seven), wanted to wrap him in cotton wool. How would he fare in the shark tank - forget swans - of the overseas ballet world?
Four years on, Lam has just become the first Chinese member of the Paris Opera Ballet. The achievement is truly remarkable.
The Paris Opera Ballet was founded in 1669, and is the world's oldest national ballet company. To survive four years of its Darwinian system is a feat of endurance. When Lam started, he and a Ukrainian boy were the only two non-French students in his dance class.
"He was my best friend," says Lam. "And at the end of the first year he was kicked out."