What goes through a young dancer's mind when they arrive in Australia all alone?
For principal Australian Ballet dancers Ako Kondo and Chengwu Guo, who are engaged to be married, the answers are quite different.
Both left their home countries in their teens after winning scholarships to study at the Australian Ballet School through international ballet competitions.
Chengwu Guo arrived in Australia from China aged 17 after coming second in the prestigious Prix de Lausanne.
When he arrived he was too worried about his lack of English to take notice of the country he had arrived in.
"Though we did have English lessons in Beijing [at the Beijing Dance Academy] I wasn't very quick with English, I didn't understand why we did English," he told SBS News.
"When I arrived in Australia I was really nervous about speaking English and communication. I think I didn't really think about anything else.
"Because a teacher was driving me to the school [from the airport] I was trying to understand her, I wasn't looking at the country."
Australian Ballet dancer Chengwu Guo as a child in China. (Supplied) Source: Supplied
Kondo, who came from Japan aged 16 after winning a scholarship in the Youth American Grand Prix, was looking forward to seeing kangaroos when she arrived in Australia.
"I had no English so I couldn't really communicate to people and I found Australian people were nice and friendly," she told SBS News.
"Australians are happy to take time for you to explain things, no one is rushing. Time goes a bit slower than in Tokyo."
Guo came from the Beijing Dance Academy - a school made famous in Australia by former principal dancer Li Cunxin who wrote the book Mao's Last Dancer, which later became a film, starring Guo as the teenage Cunxin.
It took him about two years to come to terms with the different approach the Australian Ballet took towards ballet and life compared to his former school.
"I trained in hell for seven years and I knew my quality and my technique was much better than some other people's but the company didn't want me to sit back, they kept pushing me," Guo said.
"In China it's like, 'shut up and work hard and show me what you can do', but in Australia they say, 'tell me what you see and then work', so it took me two years to get used to that."
After a bumpy start with the company, Guo rose steadily through the ranks to become one of the Australian Ballet's most dynamic principal dancers.
Australian Ballet dancer Chengwu Guo as a child in China. (Supplied) Source: Supplied
Arriving at the Australian Ballet School saw a marked increase in the amount of time Kondo could devote to ballet.
"In Japan I never went to a full-time ballet school because we don't have any," she said.
"I went to a normal school during the day and did just one [ballet] lesson from 6pm and then went home. A lot of the people in the class did ballet just as a hobby.
"At the full-time ballet school all the students in the class were wanting to be ballerinas, they were wanting to become professionals.
"The classes started every day at 8am and it was a whole day of training so I could focus on ballet and everyone was going for the same goal, which gave me a really good push."
Kondo has since risen to become The Australian Ballet’s first Japanese-born principal dancer.
She values the equality she's found both in company and in Australian society.
Some European companies did not allow dancers who looked different to traditionally white, European dancers to perform principal roles, she points out.
Australian Ballet dancer Ako Kondo as a child in Japan. (Supplied) Source: Supplied
"In my company, David [McAllister, the company's artistic director] doesn't think that way, he only cares if you can perform the role," she said.
Kondo says life in Australia has given her a more positive outlook on life.
"In Australia no one is negative about life," she said.
"Whatever happens, I try to think in a positive way. In the ballet, I do have a bit of a different body, I have shorter legs than the others and when I come here I was thinking I have too short legs.
"But my teacher said I shouldn't think that way, I should think if I have shorter legs, I can move faster than the others."
Guo says one of the biggest things he's gained from his life in Australia is freedom.
"The lifestyle is really free and you can say whatever you want without thinking about the consequences, which is lovely," he said.
"I feel everyone here is quite equal."
In return, Guo says he's given Australia his youth.
"Being a ballet artist and giving your youth to someone is or something is the greatest gift someone can give, like in a marriage or a relationship," he said.
"I brought my knowledge and a different style to Australia so now when I teach I have a lot more information about ballet."
Australian Ballet dancers Ako Kondo and Chengwu Guo perform in Cinderella. (Australian Ballet/Jeff Busby) Source: Australian Ballet/Jeff Busby
Guo was still in contact with friends from the Academy and recently visited his family back in China.
But they didn't have much of an understanding of his career, despite his achievements.
"There's no artists in my family, I'm the only one, they're all dentists and doctors and teachers," he said.
"I tried to show them a video of Ako and me dancing Cinderella, but they couldn't even get through it."
Kondo visits her family and friends in Japan once a year and was recently able to perform for them in Japan with Guo at a gala performance.
"It is hard for them to travel so it was special for us to go there to perform and show how much I have grown and what I had as a job," she said.
"My mum is always in tears."
