Li Feng, who launched the art education project in Duancun, awards a certificate to a girl who has graduated from Guan's ballet class.[GAO TIAN/CHINA DAILY]

"In their eyes, you see a fervent determination and an untainted devotion unlikely to be found even among top dancers," said Gao Tian, a lawyer-turned-photographer who has shot many performances.

But these "jolly angels" were also vulnerable, as Guan and his dancer wife Zhang Ping discovered. "One day during a class break, a 6-year-old girl nuzzled up to me and asked in her thin voice, 'Teacher, can I call you Mom?'" said Zhang, who has taught in Duancun for the past three years. "Although I was surprised, I instinctively realized what she was asking for－parental love."

With their parents working away in large cities, most of the Duancun girls have grown up with their grandparents and other senior relatives, and their confidence has been further eroded by the local culture in which boys are seen as superior. "Ballet gives them a long-sought opportunity to be center-stage and feel loved," Zhang said. "A girl once cried about her dark skin, so I told her that she had the most beautiful foot arch. She beamed, and said she'd never give up that arch for anything, not even lighter skin."

Guan's academy students used to teach the girls, but now he relies on himself and a small number of dancer friends, all older than 40. "What the girls need is not a big brother or sister, but a mother or father," he said.

However, "responsible parenting" often means being brutally honest. "Judging by their physical attributes, it would be just unrealistic for the majority of the girls to imagine a career in dancing," said Guan, who, in April, arranged for teachers from the National Ballet of China to hold a recruiting session in Duancun. "Every year, they pick talented young girls and spend years training to prepare them for prestigious dance groups," he said.

None of the girls was chosen, but Guan wasn't surprised. "I saw them bursting into tears, knowing that this is just one of the numerous obstacles they'll encounter in their lives," he said. "I'm not here to change the trajectory of anyone's life. If a girl from my class is going to quit dancing temporarily when she enters middle school, or if she fails the college entrance exam and returns to her village to be a farmer or a housewife, that's life.

"But it's my genuine wish that she will treat herself to a piece by Tchaikovsky while cooking, or execute a beautiful twirl among the tall reeds," he said, adding that he has had great times "harvesting crayfish and collecting duck eggs", and other fun activities to which his students introduced him.

"Growing up nourished by the abundant beauty of Mother Nature, these girls can extract a kind of genius from their provincialism. To be with them is to reconnect with my own innermost yearnings for artistic experience," Guan said.

In one of Gao's photos, taken during the summer of 2013, four girls, including Li Ziyi, stand in a newly harvested cornfield, striking balletic poses and gazing at the sky. "Contrast is the theme－contrast between the budding young girls and the brooding clouds and the short, spiky stubble that forms the background, the contrast between the past and the future," Gao said.

Guan visited Duancun for the first time a few months before Gao's photo session. When one mother asked why her daughter should study ballet, he replied, "to become prettier and marry better".

The effect was immediate. "My wife tied the 6-year-old girl's hair into a neat bun, and I saw the indifferent expression on the mother's face change to incredulity mixed with pure adoration," he said. "One minute is all it takes to turn an impish duckling into Princess Swan," he said.

Li Ziyi was one of his first students. "When I first saw her, in March 2013, she was 12 and just like the other girls. Standing uneasily before me, she bit her lip and nodded at whatever I asked her," Guan said. "But then, when I knelt down and talked slowly to her, I saw the sparkle in her big black eyes.

"Teaching art is about teaching the notion of equality, because everybody is equal in his or her love for art and their love is equally precious. It's also about teaching openness, an attitude that lays the found-ations for any artistic pursuit and has at its heart an undaunted confidence," he said, reflecting on the meeting at the restaurant.

"The moment I felt the warmth of her embrace, I knew I had succeeded."

Contact the writer at zhaoxu@chinadaily.com.cn