Emma's juggling act

Phillips practices on a swinging ring at the school. Provided to China Daily

The instructor coaches her five hours a day, six days a week. Sometimes she will continue her training for another three hours at night. This tight schedule will last until the end of December.

Phillips has already worn out six Chinese parasols, and now she is moving on to something even harder - juggling a 1-square-meter table, an act that is seldom performed outside China.

Often bruised or in pain from the long, intensive training, Phillips says what hurts her more is missing her friends and her family, whom she has not seen for a year.

"I call them or chat online after training," she says, looking at photographs of her family, and the town where she came from. There are other hurdles apart from her homesickness. Phillips cannot speak more than a few words of Chinese, and her coach, Liu Lin, does not speak English.

"It was hard to communicate during the initial months," Liu says. "Then I downloaded a translation application on my cell phone, so now we can talk, helped by body language."

Phillips has also made serious attempts to learn Mandarin and she can now master some sentences.

"I still want to have a Chinese teacher, so I can understand more about the traditions and culture of acrobatics," she says.

Age was also another barrier, Liu Lin says.

"Compared to the younger students, Emma can absorb and understand the guidelines better, but physically, she does not have the advantage," Liu says.

Yet despite all the challenges, Phillips is very committed to her dream of one day performing with a troupe in China, touring the world and combining circus, theater and dance.

"Foreign students like Emma appreciate our lessons very much. It has been an important channel of education exchange between China and other countries, and an excellent channel through which to spread our traditions," says Li Qingming, who is in charge of foreign student management at the school in Wuqiao.

He says more than 20 student from African countries will arrive in May to study for a year.

Phillips is happy to hear the news. "I will have more foreign friends soon, and it will be nice to be able to talk to them, and train with them."