Chinese dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet on his journey, injuries and his future after the stage
- Lam Chun-wing, a member of the Paris Opera Ballet, sustained an injury in October. Rather than feel bad, he is choosing to focus on the opportunity it presents
- He talks about his plans to set up a financial-planning firm for athletes and artists, and an upcoming talk he will give as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival
Halfway through our video interview, Lam Chun-wing – Hong Kong-born and bred and the first Chinese member of the Paris Opera Ballet – receives a phone call. It’s someone from France’s social security system, checking on whether the dancer is back at work yet.
Last October, Lam broke his foot rehearsing a solo (from Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering, ironically enough) while wearing too-big leather boots on which he’d landed awkwardly.
He has not danced since. A few months earlier, in April, he had been promoted to coryphée, a higher rank within the corps de ballet. He’d intended to dance the Robbins piece in the company’s annual contest for further internal promotion. Since then, he’s already had one operation, will certainly have a second and may need a third.
“No one knows if I’ll be able to dance normally afterwards,” he says, smiling as performers must in adversity. “It’s an interesting period for me to have a distance with ballet because, as you know, I’ve been dancing since the age of seven.”
