Unpredictability seems to be the defining word in Brigida Perera Neves' life. She had always been intrigued by China but never really thought she would be living in this many-splendored country one day.

She arrived in London from Portugal at age 16 to train at the city's Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, and has been pirouetting across half the world ever since.

Working as an independent ballet dancer, she found, was fun once she was done with her schooling. She got decent breaks, including one with the English National Ballet in London.

The budding ballerina went twirling on her toes all over Europe and America, touring with performance groups - until one day a small notice inviting dancers to audition for a ballet company in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, caught her eye.

Neves was ecstatic when she got the job. "I was going to experience a culture very different from Europe and a new dance language."

It was only after she arrived in Suzhou that she found she had landed in a pretty kettle of fish. "I had auditioned for a solo part as a ballerina but what these people had in mind was something on the lines of a cabaret."

Within a week she was out of Suzhou, jobless and homeless. She drifted for a while, doing stints in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou, sometimes holding down two jobs at a time, teaching both English and ballet.

It was six months before she landed a contract as a soloist with Liaoning Ballet, and came to work with the company in Shenyang, as the lone European performer in an all-Chinese cast of dancers. Soon after, her graphic-designer boyfriend, who has Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and English roots, followed her to Shenyang.

It has been quite a journey ever since. From the solo number and performances in compositions based on Chinese themes - her Liaoning Ballet debut - to playing one of the dancers in a pas de quatre in the opening sequence in Swan Lake, now showing in Japan, Neves has hardly had a moment to breathe.

"I am very happy in both artistic and personal terms. It has been very enriching indeed," she says.

Between the Christmas of 2007 and now, Neves has performed at the Olympic opening at Qingdao, been on Liaoning TV and performed to full houses in Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts.

She says there is no fundamental difference among ballet forms around the world. "It's people's way of looking at ballet in different cultures that changes."