Art as chronicler, counselor & consoler

In the Xiamen version the dancers were 20 Xiamen residents from young to old and from many walks of life.

They included Huang Eryan, a nurse in Xiamen who spent six weeks in Wuhan, Hubei province, during the coronavirus outbreak early this year.

"Because of my work I'm usually quite a reserved person in the hospital," Huang says. "We tend to repress our emotions. But taking part in the dance I felt the environment was very open. There was no right or wrong, and we were allowed to be ourselves and encouraged to let ourselves go. So the whole experience was very uplifting.

"I was with the other performers for only a few days, but I feel we developed a very powerful team spirit. It was similar to what happened in our medical team in Wuhan: small but powerful. There was something I could learn from each and every person."

She had little dance experience, she says, and was anxious at first, so was encouraged to just to be herself.

"Most people imagine they are not good enough to dance on a stage, and that's exactly the people I want to cast for Gala－those who think they're no good," Bel says.

"I'm not there to judge the dancing. I'm more interested in understanding what it means and what the dancer is expressing. So Gala particularly welcomes those who say 'I can't dance.'"