SHAPE SHIFTERS

The closing gala of the Beijing Dance Academy's ballet competition featured guest performers from some of the world's leading ballet companies, Cheng Yuezhu reports.

As ballet dancers breeze across the stage and fling their lithe figures into a tour en l'air, the audience cheers at each entrechat, allegro and pirouette, awed by their ultimate demonstration of elegance, strength and control.

This was the scene at the theater of the Beijing Dance Academy on Oct 23, where the awards ceremony and closing gala performance took place for the 2018 Beijing International Ballet Invitational for Dance Schools.