​Lan Zheng

Born in Chengdu, China, Lan started dancing at the age of nine at the encouragement of her mother who was a Chinese Folk Dancer. When Lan was ten, she auditioned for admission into the Beijing Dance Academy, the top ballet school in China. Lan was one of only fifteen girls in all of China selected by the Beijing Dance Academy for its prestigious pre-professional ballet program in 1992.

Lan moved to Beijing to live at the Beijing Dance Academy where she trained for seven years. Under the guidance of Shu Xiang Wang and Sin Rong Cao, Lan learned Classical Ballet technique as well as other dance forms such as Chinese Folk Dance, Russian and Spanish Character Dance and Modern Dance. Upon her graduation in 1999, Lan was hired by the Shanghai Ballet Company, one of the five national professional ballet companies in China.

From 1999 to 2002, Lan was a member of the corps de ballet. She was appointed Leading Dancer in 2002 and Soloist Dancer in 2004. Lan's repertoire with the Shanghai Ballet Company included: Mirlitons and Snow Flakes in Nutcracker; first pas de deux in La Valse; four Russian girls in Serenade; pas de six in Romeo and Juliet; pas de quart, Italian dance and four swans in Swan Lake; pas de sept in La Sylphide; and contemporary soloist in Modern Dance Dialogue Chopin.

During her 13 year tenure at the Shanghai Ballet Company, Lan performed in productions directed by Jose Martinez and Pierre Lacotte of the Opéra National de Paris, Derek Deane of the English National Ballet, Ben Huys of the New York City Ballet and Bertrand d'At of the Opéra National du Rhin. As a result, while Lan  trained under the Vaganova style, she has been influenced by the French and English styles as well. Lan performed internationally in Australia (2002), Spain (Coppelia, 2003), Japan (Swan Lake, 2006), United States (Coppelia, 2007), Thailand (Romeo and Juliet, 2009) and Finland (2010). In 2011, Lan was recognized as a "Master" dancer by the Chinese government.

In 2012, Lan moved to New York City and joined the Ballet des Amériques as a Company Dancer and Teacher. At the Company, Lan performed in contemporary dance productions choreographed by Artistic Director Carole Alexis. She also taught advanced ballet technique to the School's students enrolled in the pre-professional program. In the Summer of 2013, Lan joined the faculty of Peabody Preparatory, Baltimore's premier community school for the arts. Peabody Preparatory is a division of the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. Shortly afterwards, Lan joined the faculty of the Baltimore School for the Arts, the magnate arts high school for the City of Baltimore.