LIFE & wellbeing
My Shanghai Amy Fabris-Shi, Instructor at Zy Dance Studio By Natalie Foxwell
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ydney-born Amy Fabris-Shi and her Shanghainese husband Shi Zhongyi (Zy), both former professional ballet and contemporary dancers, met at the barre and danced around the world before settling down in Shanghai 15 years ago. Their latest pas de deux is the delightful Zy Dance Studio, a boutique ballet and contemporary dance studio in central Shanghai where they share their international dance experience with children and adults of all ages and levels. We met with Amy and found out more about her life since leaving Australia many years ago and settling in Shanghai.
You’re a former professional ballet dancer; can you tell me what you were doing before moving to Shanghai? Since I started dancing at the age of 8 in Sydney, I’d dreamed of becoming a ballerina performing on theater stages in Europe. At 17, I was accepted into the Australian Ballet School and after graduation, I set off to audition for ballet companies, when fate stepped in. Bound for Europe, my plane stopped over in Singapore where I’d arranged to join a class with the national ballet company, Singapore Dance Theatre (SDT), and at the end of class the artistic director offered me a job. I spent four happy years with SDT and stood at the barre behind a young soloist from Shanghai, who was to become my husband. Eventually, I completed my journey to Europe. We danced in ballet and contemporary dance companies in Germany and toured across Europe, before retiring from the stage and heading to Shanghai for what was supposed to be a two-year stint. That was 15 years ago.
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After moving to Shanghai, what was the inspiration for starting Zy Dance Studio and where does the name come from? Once we’d arrived in my husband’s hometown of Shanghai, he was invited to teach at the Shanghai Dance School, where he had trained as a boy. Zy spent a decade training future generations of professional dancers before becoming Ballet Master of the Shanghai Opera House, a position he currently holds. Wanting to share his passion for dance training with the wider community, he opened Zy Dance Studio (pronounced ‘zai,’ his initials) for adult dancers of all levels. Almost a year ago, we had the opportunity to expand into our own custom-built dance space in Jing’an, which is when I became actively involved teaching and developing our children’s dance program. We wanted Zy Dance Studio to reflect the inspiration, global outlook and joy we’d experienced in our dancing careers, with beautiful studios and positive, inspiring teachers with professional dance backgrounds.
What has been the best advice you were given about managing a business in Shanghai? Like pretty much everything in Shanghai, managing a business here is a thrill-ride of opportunities and challenges. While it’s important to be flexible and adaptive, you also need to stay true to your values and not be distracted from your long-term vision. We made the decision from the outset to be an artistic dance studio and we try to ensure that every decision reflects this, from the classes we offer, to our teachers and collaborations. This way, you build a community of members who share your vision and fill the studio with their enthusiasm, energy and friendship.
