Sun Jia has been a professional ballet dancer with the Hong Kong Ballet since 2022, but beyond performing on stage, she has a mission—to offer the world a behind-the-scenes look at the reality of professional ballet. Through social media, she shares humorous and insightful glimpses into her life as a ballerina, engaging with a growing global audience.
Born in Shandong, China, Sun spent years training at prestigious ballet institutions in China, the United States, and Germany before pursuing a professional career. Along the way, she developed a passion for storytelling through short-form video content. Her posts on Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Instagram have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers, drawn to her ability to blend comedy with the elegance of ballet.
She began creating content during the pandemic while living in Dresden, but it was in Hong Kong in 2023 that she fully embraced it, inspired by the “day in the life” videos popular on social media. With just her smartphone and the CapCut editing app, she meticulously scripts and edits her videos, a process that can take up to three days. Editing, she admits, is the most time-consuming part, requiring careful selection of music, scene cuts, and storytelling techniques to bring her vision to life.
Some of her most popular videos include Ballet Dancer Thoughts During the Barre, which has garnered over 10 million views, and Ballerina’s Body Insecurity, which has been viewed nearly seven million times. Despite the demanding schedule of a ballet dancer, especially leading up to performances, Sun finds brief moments during lunch breaks or after rehearsals to film. She credits her supportive colleagues, many of whom appear in her videos, for helping bring her content to life.
Sun’s journey in ballet began at age five when her father encouraged her to dance. Recognizing her talent, he enrolled her in the Affiliated School of Liaoning Ballet, where she trained rigorously from ages seven to twelve. She later earned a scholarship to The Harid Conservatory in Florida and joined the Joffrey Ballet Trainee Programme at 17. After training and performing in the U.S., she moved to Germany, where she danced with the Semperoper Ballett for nine years before relocating to Hong Kong.
Now settled in Asia, Sun continues to share her experiences, hoping to make ballet more relatable to a wider audience. Through her content, she aims to highlight both the beauty and the struggles of being a dancer, offering an honest portrayal of life behind the curtain.
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