The gravity-defying leaps and flips of classical Chinese dance have certainly attracted more than one young dancer to take up the ancient form—Daniel Zhang is one of them. “I was the kind of kid who couldn’t sit still; I was always moving,” Zhang said. At age 8 or 9, he attended a classical Chinese dance performance where he saw his older cousin flip into the air—and seemingly stay there for a while—before coming back down to the ground. He was in awe, and set his sights on becoming a dancer. Naturally athletic and flexible, Zhang, now a student at Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, was well suited to become a dancer. But he would soon learn that though he had no physical barriers to learning classical Chinese dance, there were cultural barriers to overcome. “I grew up in the West, so it was a little harder to grasp that Chinese feeling,” …