Dressed in a red-and-white warrior costume, Peking opera actress Zhang Wanting balances on one foot on the narrow arm of a rosewood chair.
She bends forward, lifts her other leg high and grasps the two long pheasant feathers on her helmet to strike a pose like a flying swallow.
Cheers and applause rise from more than 100 spectators in a modern Beijing theatre.
It is a Sunday in September, and Zhang, 30, is leading The Masked Heroine at the Song School of Peking opera.
“Ever since I first started learning this play, I’ve dreamed of performing it in full,” she said.
Most performers in the Peking opera start training at a very young age to build physical strength and flexibility. They dedicate years to mastering the opera’s techniques in hopes of engaging today’s audiences.
