A contemporary twist to dance

The program will be presented at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing in October and at the Diaghilev Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, in November. "Next year, we will take it on tour to Europe. The work will embark on a new life cycle from here," Xie says.

"I am very lucky to be working at a great time. We have this great platform of a contemporary dance biennial in China. Guests from around the world will see the diverse Chinese choreographers' works in different stages of their development."

The biennial is "a warm bridge that facilitates more possibilities for cooperation for young, emerging dancers and choreographers", she says.

A major highlight in this year's program is that Chen, the organizer, finds that "quite a few programs inherit elements of traditional Chinese culture".

For example, Yong III, choreographed by Tian Tian, incorporated the dance vocabulary dating to the Han (206 BC-220 AD) and Tang (618-907) dynasties.

"Just like the dance movements we see depicted on ancient murals," Chen says, "there are also productions that integrate folk dance and ethnic culture, but they all express it in a contemporary context."

Menno Plukker, president of the Menno Plukker Theatre Agent Inc, tells China Daily that there is a lot of interest in work from China in the global dance theater scene. "Dancers from China send out a sincere sense of what it's like to live here, including the ambitions and anxiety of the youth and their expectations for the future."