However this Saturday was a little different. As winter sunshine illuminated the spacious rehearsal hall and eight "cranes" practised their steps to the music of the Nutcracker, an audience of more than 60 people sat around the hall enthralled.

Huang Zhiqing, 53, a veteran ballerina with the NBC watched over the preceedings stopping the music and shouting instructions occasionally.

Young and pretty ballerinas, some wearing tutus of various colors and some wearing dark tights, leapt and turned in their delicate pink shoes. The wooden floor creaked under their movements.

The audience, ranging from very young girls to women in their 60s, were either seated on temporary seats or stood leaning against the wall, some even sat on the floor. In-between the women a few men were scattered.

Scenes in the two neighboring rehearsal halls were almost the same. The only difference was that in the other two halls, dancers were practising the Chinese ballets "The Yellow River" and "The Red Detachment of Women."

Some audience members wandered from one hall to another occasionally.

In another small room a number of tutus and other ballet costumes were displayed and a few people were trying on "points." In fits of giggles the girls tried to imitate the ballerinas and stand on their toes.

If you had visited the NBC last Saturday, you would have seen all this going on, for it was the NBC's "open day," a programme jointly sponsored by the NBC and the Poly Theatre.

"We have long planned to offer this type of 'open day' so as to narrow the gap between the audience and the ballet, known as the elegant art in China," said Zhao Ruheng, the president of the NBC, and herself a renowned ballerina 20 years ago.

"As the name 'a walking approaching to ballet' suggests, we hope that people come to see how hard the dancers practise off stage instead of just seeing the highlights on stage," the president said.

Although nowadays more and more people go to the ballet, few really appreciate the art or know the dancers.

"Ballet is one of the most time-consuming and energy-consuming arts," said Zhu Yan, 23, in her short break during the morning rehearsals.

"People always look at us as princes or fairies, the images from the stage. But in reality our lives are very different from what you see on stage," said Zhu, who won a gold medal in the 1998 Varnal International Ballet Competition.

As for the open-day audience, most of them were young girls who have been learning ballet from a very early age. Some amateur dance schools also organized for their students to see the practice. Others were simply ballet enthusiasts from various backgrounds.

Huang Huang, 11, has been learning ballet for five years at a dance school for children. Every Sunday morning, rain or shine, she goes to the school and spends three hours training.

Without batting an eyelid, the young girl exclaimed: "They are great! How can I dance as well as them."

Wu Yaqin, her mother, said: "I support her in her desire to learn ballet and have brought her here today to show her what the results can be if she works hard."

Qu Jingyu, 42, came all the way from suburban Tongxian County, about 40 kilometers east of Beijing, to bring his 10-year-old daughter to the open-day.

"My father woke me up at five o'clock when it was still dark, " Quan Xin complained. But it wasn't long before she changed her tone. "But I like it here very much and I wish I could come here more often," she said.

Lu Maohong, 45, and her husband Zhang Weicheng, 47, found out about the "open day" from a local evening paper.

"We often go to see the ballet in the theatre and it is a novelty for us to see them in rehearsal. It is a good idea for the troupe to hold such an activity," Lu said.

In a normal working day the dancers practise from 9 am to 4:30 pm with a short rest of an hour at noon. This Saturday the audience and the dancers had lunch together.

In the afternoon, Zhao Ruheng, the president, also gave a lively speech about the basics of ballet with demonstrations by Hao Bo and Song Xiaoxiao, two new members of the NBC.

In addition, on the NBC's stage, some of the troupe's established dancers gave the audience a short but wonderful performance, encouraging prolonged and thunderous applause and giving the audience a chance to see the dancers' diligence put to use.

Open days are a common activity for overseas ballet troupes, although they are new to the Chinese public.

"We received over 250 people today. Though all of them enjoyed the event so much that they asked us to do more open days, we still need time to improve the programme," said Zhao Ruheng.

(China Daily 12/18/2000)