Yuanyuan Zhang
Photo: Jan Willem Kaldenbach

YuanYuan Zhang

Soloist

Her teacher at nursery school saw it straight away. “That child just can’t sit still. As soon as she hears music, her hips begin to sway.” Soloist YuanYuan Zhang comes from Xinjiang, a Chinese region where the people are known for their talent for music and dance, she says. “My parents often sang and danced too, and I had my first classes in traditional Chinese dance at the age of six.” 

When she was nine, on the advice of her dance teacher, YuanYuan did the audition for the Sichuan Dance School – located far away in Chengdu – that was held in her province. She was accepted and went with her parents on the 45-hour train journey to Chengdu. “They said, ‘If you don’t like it there, you can come straight back with us’, but I wanted to stay.” To her dismay, however, YuanYuan found she had been put on the ballet course, instead of the traditional dance course. “I’d seen ballet on TV occasionally, but it hadn’t really appealed to me. Things only changed after a couple of years, when we started to do little dances and not just exercises. And when I got to do a small solo once, I started to really love it.”

YuanYuan Zhang in Giselle
YuanYuan Zhang in Giselle (2023) | Photo: Sasha Gouliaev
YuanYuan Zhang en Davi Ramos in The Sleeping Beauty
YuanYuan Zhang and Davi Ramos in The Sleeping Beauty (2022) | Photo: Nina Tonoli

Out of the Chinese bubble 

When she was sixteen, YuanYuan moved up to the Shanghai Theatre Academy, where the standard was considerably higher than at her previous dance school. “That was intense. I worked like crazy for four years.” In Shanghai, she also came out of her ‘Chinese bubble’. Stimulated by lots of performances and by taking part in ballet competitions, she discovered the international dance world, through the internet. “I saw videos of Dutch National Ballet and they looked so good. Then I realised that ballet was a Western art form, so if I wanted to learn and discover more, I’d have to go to Europe or America.” 

Fate was kind to YuanYuan. When she won gold at a ballet competition in South Africa, in 2014, one of the jury members was Ernst Meisner (artistic coordinator of the Junior Company). Shortly afterwards, she heard that she was welcome in Amsterdam. “My parents thought I’d be joining the National Ballet of China, who had also offered me a contract. It was only when my visa had been arranged that I announced casually, ‘I’m going to the Netherlands!’”

YuanYuan Zhang in Het Zwanenmeer (2023) | Foto: Marc Haegeman
YuanYuan Zhang in Swan Lake (2023) | Photo: Marc Haegeman
YuanYuan Zhang en Davi Ramos in Het Zwanenmeer (2023) | Foto: Marc Haegeman
YuanYuan Zhang and Davi Ramos in Swan Lake (2023) | Photo: Marc Haegeman
Salome Leverashvili, Sho Yamada en YuanYuan Zhang in Het Zwanenmeer (2023) | Foto: Marc Haegeman
Salome Leverashvili, Sho Yamada and YuanYuan Zhang in Swan Lake (2023) | Photo: Marc Haegeman
YuanYuan Zhang en Davi Ramos in Het Zwanenmeer (2023) | Foto: Marc Haegeman
YuanYuan Zhang and Davi Ramos in Swan Lake (2023) | Photo: Marc Haegeman
YuanYuan Zhang in Raymonda (2022) | Foto: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang in Raymonda (2022) | Photo: Michel Schnater
Riho Sakamoto, Maia Makhateli en YuanYuan Zhang in Raymonda (2022) | Foto: Altin Kaftira
Riho Sakamoto, Maia Makhateli and YuanYuan Zhang in Raymonda (2022) | Photo: Altin Kaftira
YuanYuan Zhang in Yugen (2022) | Foto: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang in Yugen (2022) | Photo: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang in Yugen (2022) | Foto: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang, Timothy van Poucke and Artur Shesterikov in Yugen (2022) | Photo: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang en Jakob Feyferlik in Concertante (2022) | Foto: Altin Kaftira
YuanYuan Zhang and Jakob Feyferlik in Concertante (2022) | Photo: Altin Kaftira
YuanYuan Zhang en Jakob Feyferlik in Concertante (2022) | Foto: Altin Kaftira
YuanYuan Zhang and Jakob Feyferlik in Concertante (2022) | Photo: Altin Kaftira
YuanYuan Zhang en Riho Sakamoto in Metaforen (2022) | Foto: Sasha Gouliaev
YuanYuan Zhang and Riho Sakamoto in Metaforen (2022) | Photo: Sasha Gouliaev
YuanYuan Zhang en Jakob Feyferlik in The Four Seasons (2022) | Foto: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang and Jakob Feyferlik in The Four Seasons (2022) | Photo: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang en Jakob Feyferlik in The Four Seasons (2022) | Foto: Yan Revazov
YuanYuan Zhang and Jakob Feyferlik in The Four Seasons (2022) | Photo: Yan Revazov
YuanYuan Zhang in The Four Seasons (2022) | Foto: Yan Revazov
YuanYuan Zhang in The Four Seasons (2022) | Photo: Yan Revazov
YuanYuan Zhang in The Four Seasons (2022) | Foto: Yan Revazov
YuanYuan Zhang in The Four Seasons (2022) | Photo: Yan Revazov
YuanYuan Zhang en Leo Hepler in The Four Temperaments (2022) | Foto: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang and Leo Hepler in The Four Temperaments (2022) | Photo: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang en Davi Ramos in The Sleeping Beauty (2023) | Foto: Nina Tonoli
YuanYuan Zhang and Davi Ramos in The Sleeping Beauty (2023) | Photo: Nina Tonoli
YuanYuan Zhang in The Sleeping Beauty (2023) | Foto: Nina Tonoli
YuanYuan Zhang in The Sleeping Beauty (2023) | Photo: Nina Tonoli

Lots of nods and smiles 

Despite YuanYuan’s open and sociable nature, with no grasp of the English language her start in Amsterdam was a difficult one. “I was always trying to guess what people meant and I responded mainly with lots of nods and smiles.” However, she soon made friends in the Junior Company, and after just one year she moved up to Dutch National Ballet, where things went really well for her in the first few years. “I may have been fifth or sixth cast, but even in the rank of élève I already got to dance some nice solo roles.” After a couple of promotions, she was given leading roles in Coppelia, The Nutcracker & The Mouse King, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake and several Balanchine ballets. Swan Lake is a particular favourite, as is Giselle, the title role of which she hopes to add to her repertoire one day. “Because you can put all your emotions, drama and own story into it.” But at the same time, she really enjoys continually doing totally different things. “Works by choreographers like David Dawson, Wayne McGregor and William Forsythe: that’s the reason I came to Europe. One of the wonderful things about this kind of ballet is that instead of playing a role, you can be completely yourself.” 

YuanYuan Zhang en Leo Hepler in The Four Temperaments (2022) | Foto: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang and Leo Hepler in The Four Temperaments (2022) | Photo: Michel Schnater
YuanYuan Zhang en Sho Yamada in Raymonda (2022) | Foto: Altin Kaftira
YuanYuan Zhang and Sho Yamada in Raymonda (2022) | Photo: Altin Kaftira

Four Seasons

The corona pandemic had a profound effect on YuanYuan’s life. Not only was she unable to travel to China for four years, but in November 2022 her father died without her being able to say goodbye to him. And whereas before then she had been free of injuries, after the first lockdown she was out of action twice due to a broken bone in her foot. “That was tough. When the umpteenth scan still isn’t good, it’s hard to keep believing it’ll turn out okay.” Yet now she’s fully recovered, she says that in the end it also had important positive effects. During the time she was injured, she became qualified as a Pilates teacher. And she now has greater awareness of her body, which gives her more confidence mentally and means she enjoys her profession even more and is less bothered by nerves. “Now when I dance Swan Lake or The Sleeping Beauty, I’m much more occupied with the character I’m portraying than with the steps.” 

 

CV

Place of birth: 
Korla (Xinjiang, China) 


With Dutch National Ballet since
2014


Career with Dutch Nationale Ballet: 
Soloist (2019), grand sujet (2018), coryphée (2017), corps de ballet (2016), élève (2015), Junior Company (2014)


Training: 
Sichuan Dance School (Chengdu, China), Shanghai Theatre Academy (China) 


Awards: 

  • 2014: South African International Ballet Competition, gold medal 

  • 2014: Star of East China, first prize