Raising the barre

A look at the achievements of Tan Yuanyuan, a prolific ballet dancer from Shanghai and a national treasure whose passion for her craft is as dazzling as her sublime movements on stage

On June 19, China's most acclaimed ballet dancer Tan Yuanyuan completed the last of many tasks her eponymous ballet studio had set out to do when she launched a book titled Zujian Shangde Yishu (The Art on the Toe: An Introduction to Nine Leading Ballet Companies in the World) at Hotel Equatorial in Shanghai.

Tan, who has been dancing with the San Francisco Ballet for more than 20 years, is the only Chinese dancer to ever attain the rank of principal at a major US ballet company.