Accompanied by live music from the pianist in the corner of the rehearsal room, dancers from the Shanghai Ballet had their first group training session on Wednesday morning after a two-month pause to all performances and rehearsals because of the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

"Today is the first reunion of our entire company, and we will train harder than ever, and hope to make up with the time that was lost," said Xin Lili, director of Shanghai Ballet.

Xin said the company has been hard at work preparing for a new project titled Light of the Earth, a 40-minute modern dance production that will be unveiled in July.

Wu Husheng, a principal dancer of Shanghai ballet and the choreographer of Light of the Earth, showed journalists the cot he had been sleeping in the company in the past month, due to the closed-loop management.

"This special experience gave me inspiration which I have manifested in this new production," he said.