Zhong-Jing Fang

Photo: Jade Young.

Born in Shanghai, China, Zhong-Jing Fang received her early training at the Shanghai Ballet School where she trained for seven years. In 2000, Fang was the winner of the famed Prix de Lausanne, and winner of the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation Prize at the Ninth International Ballet Competition in Paris. In 2001, Fang won First Prize in the Junior Division of the Helsinki International Ballet Competition and first place in the Junior Division of the Shanghai International Ballet Competition. Fang graduated with a major in ballet from the Performing Arts College of Shanghai Drama University before joining American Ballet Theatre Studio Company in September 2002.

Fang joined the main Company as an apprentice in April 2003 and became a member of the corps de ballet in January 2004. She was promoted to Soloist in September 2018. Her roles with the Company include Calliope in Apollo, a Shade and the Aya in La Bayadère, Twig in Cinderella, Prayer in Coppélia, Mercedes and Queen of the Dryads in Don Quixote, Myrta and Zulma in Giselle, Old Mother in The Green Table, Mama Elena in Like Water for Chocolate, Nanny, the Sugar Plum Fairy and one of the Nutcracker’s sisters in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Queen of Babylon and Plangon in Of Love and Rage, Lady Capulet, Rosaline’s Friend, and a Harlot in Romeo and Juliet, Ice and Snow in The Seasons, the Fairy of Joy in The Sleeping Beauty, Canari qui chante (Canary) in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, the pas de trois, the Queen Mother, a big swan, the Hungarian Princess, and Lead Czardas in Swan Lake, the Prelude in les Sylphides, Diana and Ceres in Sylvia, Mademoiselle Marianne Chartreuse in Whipped Cream, leading roles in The Brahms-Haydn Variations and Symphonic Variations, and featured roles in AfterEffect, Black Tuesday, Continuo, Kaleidoscope, Sinfonietta, and Songs of Bukovina. She created a featured role in Pretty Good Year.

Fang has created four works for ABT’s choreographic workshops: The Final Frame (2011) for The Innovation Initiative and An Observation of the Dress Code (2019), The Unforeseen (2021), and Same Street, Different Story (2024) for ABT Incubator.

ABT is grateful to Susan Winokur and Paul Leach for supporting the Dancer Fund in honor of Zhong-Jing Fang.