Passion for ballet's graceful moves takes off

Classes popping up everywhere, a reflection of increasing consumer disposable incomes

An exhausted 28-year old Hu Yulei stretches after having finished a ballet routine with her classmates at the Morning Star Ballet Academy in the Sanlitun area in central Beijing.

Hu started practicing ballet in Nanjing at the age of six and she now uses the classical dance as a way to exercise and to escape from her daily working routine.