BRICS helps build youth ties

XIAMEN - To Strauss' Radetzky March, Marianna Donner, a Russian ballet teacher, instructs three girls at the Banlam Grand Theater in Xiamen, East China's Fujian province.

Donner, who started learning ballet as a 7-year-old, has been a dancer for 24 years before she left her Russian hometown of Yaroslavl last April to work as a ballet teacher in Xiamen.

Since then, Donner has taught more than 50 students. "Ballet to Russia is what Peking opera is to China," says Donner. "I am honored to act as a cultural ambassador in Xiamen."