Dancers Wang Ye (front) and Paulo Arrais practice on Tuesday at the National Ballet of China for their Friday performance of Swan Lake at the NCPA. Photo: Lu Qianwen/GT

One of the most influential arts festivals held every year, the Meet in Beijing officially ushered in the month-long arts festival with the classic ballet Swan Lake Thursday at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA).

In 2012, Swan Lake was also chosen as the opening show for the Meet in Beijing that year. However, differing from this year's Sino-US coproduction featuring several of the most outstanding dancers from both countries, that year's production was performed by the Cuban National Ballet based on a version of the ballet by Cuban artist Alicia Alonso.

"This year we chose to present Natalia Makarova's version, since it is the most recognized and best-loved version of all Swan Lake performances," said Feng Ying, president of The National Ballet of China (NBC), which together with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) gathered performers from China, Brazil and the US for the ballet.

Seen by many as one of the most beautiful versions of the story, Makarova's Swan Lake has been presented by many ballet troupes around the world. Born in Russia and later joining the ABT, her ballet combines both the preciseness drawn from the Russian academic style and the causal musical style for which American ballet is known. Meanwhile, her cooperation with the British Royal Ballet since 1972 adds more depth to her version thanks to the latter's reputation for its elegant approach to the script.

"Her version is more attractive as a ballet, especially in the second and fourth act, audiences will certainly be touched by the group dance of the 'swans.' NBC has four versions of Swan Lake in its history, but Makarova's version is the most popular," said Feng at a press conference for the ballet in Beijing on Tuesday.

It seems that Makarova's style has an inheritor today in Isabella Boylston, the 29-year-old chief dancer from ABT and the lead dancer for Thursday's Swan Lake performance.

Her third time in China, Isabella is already familiar with the more unified style of ballet here. "Russia is also unified, but in the US, it's more casual, like a melting pie," she told reporters during her rehearsal after the press conference. With these different styles clashing against each other in one show, Feng, as the chief art director for Swan Lake, stated that  she feels it actually helps underscore the current mutual influence of different cultures.

"As a representative work of the Russian ballet, Swan Lake is already a worldwide work that has been embodied by different styles presented at different theaters. For the performance at the NCPA this time, audiences will not only be able to watch the ballet, but listen to it as well since it is also a symphony ballet," said Feng.