Ballet master draws on her family roots

Most people who catch their mothers stealing from them feel hurt and even angry, but most people aren't Laura Alonso.

The director of Cuba's Prodanza Ballet Academy has a rather famous mother, the ballerina Alicia Alonso, who with her late father founded the dance company that has won international acclaim as the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.

"Most of my dancers are young - I get them trained, then they go to the outside. Or my mother steals them!" exclaims Laura Alonzo, speaking to China Daily from her hotel in Wuhan, where her Prodanza troupe is currently halfway through a three-month tour of China. "And when I tell her that, she just says, 'Aren't you proud?'"