When the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) dancers take to the stage for Giselle this month, one former dancer will be watching with interest.
Ginny Gan (29) retired from the company in 2014 with an injury but her husband, Qi Huan, will be dancing the lead role in the RNZB’s internationally acclaimed production.
Qi’s lovely wife of two years will be holding down the fort in Wellington with the couple’s adorable nine-month-old daughter Gemma, one of only a handful of RNZB babies.
It will, says the Singapore-born dancer, be a bittersweet experience watching her husband and former colleagues from the audience. “It is hard because that used to be me up there. But I love watching Qi dance. He’s so happy on stage and I’m happy that he’s doing something he’s really passionate about.”
Dancing the lead role for the fourth time in his career will also be tough on Qi (35), who admits leaving his girls behind isn’t easy.
“My parents are coming from China to help Ginny while I’m on tour, but I still really miss them both.”
Qi, who joined the company in 2006, says he fell in love with Ginny when the dance student passed him on a Wellington street. “She looked like a dancer but I was too shy to say hello to her.”
Fast forward a few years and Qi asked Ginny to mentor his then-girlfriend at the New Zealand School of Dance. “She’d just arrived in the country and because I spoke Mandarin, he asked me to look out for her,” recalls Ginny.
It wasn’t until Ginny joined the RNZB in 2011 that the pair, by then both single, got together. “People only see the glamorous costumes and smiling dancers up on stage,
but they have no idea how hard ballet is and the long hours we put in,” says Qi.
“When your partner is another dancer, they understand the pressure and what you’re going through, which makes life so much easier.”
The couple danced together several times, including in Swan Lake and A Song in the Dark, which toured the UK and France in 2012. But it all came crashing down when Ginny injured her hip and was forced to retire from ballet.
“Specialists in Auckland told me that I’d need a hip replacement if I wanted to keep dancing, but they also warned against it because I was so young,” she recalls. “It was
a horrible time, the darkest of my life. All I’d ever done was dance and now I’d lost my livelihood and my passion.”
Not long after, Qi left the ballet company, seeking the new challenge of teaching ballet at the New Zealand School of Dance in 2014. The couple also took the opportunity to get married in China, but there was no time for a honeymoon, as Qi was offered a guest dancer role at Queensland Ballet.
Back in New Zealand, Qi returned to the New Zealand School of Dance, where he puts around 20 students a year though the three-year degree course, while Ginny started studying for a ballet teaching certificate.
Baby Gemma joined the family in October last year and the couple admit that despite their hectic schedules, parenthood has changed them.
“If feels like we’ve grown up,” says Qi. “We tend to be more homebodies now and there are no more late-night drinking sessions on the town after a performance!”
Earlier this year, Qi was invited to be a guest dancer in the lead role of Giselle for the RNZB and admits that, although he loves teaching, he’s happiest on stage. “Some ballets are all about showing off the technical aspects of dance, but Giselle is a very romantic and emotional story. I’m really enjoying dancing this role again.”
Taking the lead in Giselle with Gillian Murphy in 2014.
So will their daughter follow in her parents’ pointe shoes? “If she’s talented and she’s into it, then sure,” says Qi. “But we’re not going to force her.”
His wife agrees, “Being a dancer is such hard work, especially when you’re a woman. There are so many female dancers and the competition is intense. But we’ll explain all the pluses and minuses to Gemma, and if she still wants to become a dancer, then we’ll fully support her.”
Ginny, Qi and adorable Gemma.
