Underwater ballet: Beauty in the depths

A newly upgraded underwater ballet is attracting lots of visitors to Harbin Polar Park in Harbin, Heilongjiang province.

Accompanied by beautiful music, performers dressed as colorful butterflies dive every day to the bottom of a glass enclosure and elegantly show off classic ballet poses and artistic swimming movements.

"It is really difficult for the dancers to overcome the buoyancy of seawater at a depth of 6 meters, as well as the huge pressure —12 times that on land," said Zang Mingyue, the instructor for the performance. "To complete the movements smoothly and coherently, the dancers need to hold their breath for two to three minutes."