|
SHOWBIZ> Gallery
![]() |
|
Related
Dancing Queen
By Chitralekha Basu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-17 09:26
Unpredictability seems to be the defining word in Brigida Perera Neves' life. She had always been intrigued by China but never really thought she would be living in this many-splendored country one day. She arrived in London from Portugal at age 16 to train at the city's Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, and has been pirouetting across half the world ever since. Working as an independent ballet dancer, she found, was fun once she was done with her schooling. She got decent breaks, including one with the English National Ballet in London. The budding ballerina went twirling on her toes all over Europe and America, touring with performance groups - until one day a small notice inviting dancers to audition for a ballet company in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, caught her eye. Neves was ecstatic when she got the job. "I was going to experience a culture very different from Europe and a new dance language." It was only after she arrived in Suzhou that she found she had landed in a pretty kettle of fish. "I had auditioned for a solo part as a ballerina but what these people had in mind was something on the lines of a cabaret." Within a week she was out of Suzhou, jobless and homeless. She drifted for a while, doing stints in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou, sometimes holding down two jobs at a time, teaching both English and ballet. It was six months before she landed a contract as a soloist with Liaoning Ballet, and came to work with the company in Shenyang, as the lone European performer in an all-Chinese cast of dancers. Soon after, her graphic-designer boyfriend, who has Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and English roots, followed her to Shenyang. It has been quite a journey ever since. From the solo number and performances in compositions based on Chinese themes - her Liaoning Ballet debut - to playing one of the dancers in a pas de quatre in the opening sequence in Swan Lake, now showing in Japan, Neves has hardly had a moment to breathe. "I am very happy in both artistic and personal terms. It has been very enriching indeed," she says. |
积石山| 民权县| 江都市| 建宁县| 广饶县| 敖汉旗| 读书| 昆明市| 浪卡子县| 崇左市| 涡阳县| 大名县| 平乐县| 淮北市| 玛沁县| 鹿邑县| 冀州市| 古蔺县| 扎赉特旗| 石泉县| 淮南市| 剑河县| 浦江县| 达孜县| 磐石市| 泸西县| 开鲁县| 长宁县| 论坛| 梁山县| 华阴市| 黑山县| 泗水县| 息烽县| 买车| 长岭县| 舞阳县| 犍为县| 连南| 磐安县| 那坡县|