The ballet dancers from the Odessa National Opera and Ballet Theater perform Swan Lake

Early in 1995, when Zheng Huihui, a professor of dance at Shanghai Normal University, was studying dance at Université Paris 8 as a visiting scholar, one of her French friends asked her about something perplexing that she saw while visiting Zheng's hometown of Shanghai. Watching a performance of Swan Lake, a Chinese man sitting in the front row held a pair of binoculars in his hands and leant forward to gaze at the stage.

"To be honest, I had no answer to clear up her confusion at that time," Zheng told the Global Times. "I knew that although ballet and Swan Lake had been imported into China in the early 20th century, most Chinese people still didn't really know what ballet was and didn't know how to appreciate Swan Lake."

"Naked legs, turning circles, ballerinas rising up and down, and small, white, lotus flower-like skirts were the earliest impressions that Swan Lake left on many Chinese prople," Zheng added.

In her opinion, even now that Swan Lake has taken off in many major Chinese cities with various foreign troupes invited to perform Swan Lake every year and many Chinese ballet troupes also staging their own productions of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece, the Chinese public still lacks the universal education needed to appreciate ballet.

Based on statistics from a major local performance information website, from last January until the beginning of the New Year, at least 15 foreign productions of Swan Lake were performed in Shanghai. On the night of December 31, three of the city's major performance venues staged Swan Lake at the same time.

Tonight, the Odessa National Opera and Ballet Theater from Ukraine will stage their production of Swan Lake at the Shanghai Grand Theatre. The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's Swan Lake will be performed at the same venue on January 10 and 11.

In Shanghai, the tradition of staging Swan Lake during the Christmas and New Year season dates back to at least a decade ago.

"In fact, it is not only a tradition in Shanghai, but also a universal tradition in many cities around the world every Christmas and New Year," Wu Jie, the deputy president of the Shanghai Ballet Company, told the Global Times. "It's not just Swan Lake, but The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty are also part of the repertoire."

Both Wu and Zheng believe that the reason Swan Lake has proved an enduring classic is because of its revolutionary role in ballet history.

"Swan Lake initiated ballet's use of imagery because the swan was personified very vividly," Zheng said. "In this work, accompanying the dance movements, the female dancer raising and bowing her head expresses the moods of melancholy, shyness and resistance as a human being."

Wu told us that in Swan Lake, group dances and pas de deux are both included, and particularly in its third act, various folk dances from different countries, like Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain, are also incorporated.

Most of the foreign productions of Swan Lake staged in Shanghai are classic renditions from Russia and Eastern Europe, and claim to be strictly based on the successful 1895 Mariinsky Theatre version both choreographically and musically.

Indeed, both Wu and Zheng pointed out that at present in China, classical ballet clearly enjoys more popularity with the public.

"However, in fact, during more than one hundred years of being performed, numerous versions of Swan Lake have developed with different regions following different styles," Zheng said.

In her opinion, Eastern European productions of Swan Lake tend to be bold and unrestrained, British adaptations are inclined to be more delicate and introverted, French versions exude elegance and grace, and the Italians demonstrate extremely high technical skill.

Wu added that contemporary interpretations of Swan Lake have also been explored in modern productions, but most Chinese people are not familiar with the comparatively recent evolution of Swan Lake.

A production of Swan Lake by Shanghai Ballet Company Photos: Courtesy of Shanghai Grand Theatre

Several months ago, during the 15th China Shanghai International Arts Festival, the Monte Carlo Ballet brought their latest production of Swan Lake to Shanghai, overseen by artistic director Jean-Christophe Maillot, one of the top choreographers in the world. The totally new adaptation brings modern-day relevance to the timeless story of Siegfried and Odette.

"It became a contemporary dance drama with the choreographer's personal interpretation of the classic story, which broke through our traditional conceptions of Swan Lake and is very worthy of watching," Wu said.

However, even though Wu gave a television lecture explaining the choreographer's style before the show was performed in Shanghai, he recalled to the Global Times that compared to more classic renditions, the box office of the Monte Carlo version was disappointing.

Both Zheng and Wu believe that no matter whether Swan Lake is a classic or contemporary production, no matter which country the company comes from, the quality of the performance mainly depends on the ability and style of the choreographer.

Therefore, they recommend that audiences read up on the choreographer before attending a production of Swan Lake.

"Of course, a long-term solution is to encourage universal education about ballet among the public, including its latest developments," Zheng said.