This week, I turned 30! Exactly a year ago, after long walks on my own along the Seine in Paris during the summer, I set three different goals for myself before turning 30 (which ended up being four). One of them was to find the courage to quit the Paris Opera Ballet. Now, I feel... Continue Reading →
After my first ballet-free summer in twenty-two years, I have just finished my very first week of work without ballet, running my wealth management firm, Wing Patrimoine. To be honest, I felt a little pressure during the summer, thinking about all the work and the clients waiting for me, and about all the projects I... Continue Reading →
In the past fifteen years, by the end of August, I would already be back in Paris, or preparing for my new season, or the season would have started already and I would have been back in the studios for ballet classes, and perhaps my first rehearsals. But this time, I don't have to go... Continue Reading →
Tomorrow, I will start rehearsing for La Bayadère. As I am writing this post this evening, I am feeling quite emotional about it. It will be my last moments dancing in the studios of the Palais Garnier. In less than two weeks' time, I will have to say goodbye to these ballet studios, as we... Continue Reading →
I started blogging here back around 2012–2013, when I was still a student at the Paris Opera Ballet School. Feeling quite lonely, and a little lost, I didn't speak much French, and found myself among students for whom this world was native. I wanted to journal my thoughts and what I was going through. After... Continue Reading →
Two days ago, I finished a long series of Giselle performances — twenty-six in total, including four in the demanding “pas de deux des vendangeurs” (pesant pas de deux). What stayed with me from this run is a phrase I first heard from my French host family when I arrived in France about fifteen years... Continue Reading →
It has been a few weeks since I came back to Paris from Hong Kong. In July, I allowed myself long walks along the Seine, reflecting on my life. It was a truly revealing and profound experience. I realized what really matters to me and what doesn’t. That reflection gave me clarity on the direction... Continue Reading →
I’m writing this at the departure gate for Paris, at Hong Kong International Airport, after a little under two weeks back home. I flew in to celebrate the 65th anniversary of my ballet school—the Jean M. Wong School of Ballet—a place that shaped not only my ballet technique but much of who I am on... Continue Reading →
A ballet career is intense and deeply demanding. While caught up in the whirlwind of rehearsals and performances at the Opera, we often operate in a kind of survival mode — with little mental space to think, and even less energy to move forward on anything outside of the stage. The unexpected downtime from my... Continue Reading →
Two days ago, at the première of Rudolf Nureyev’s Sleeping Beauty (second run of the year) at Opéra Bastille, I sprained my ankle during the finale — just a few minutes before the curtain fell. I was already feeling a bit tired after a demanding week of stage rehearsals, but reassured after a solid Générale... Continue Reading →
Tale of Chun 