Inside the human mind

Performers from the Beijing Dance Theater rehearse for the troupe's upcoming show, Poisonous Apple.[Photo Provided to China Daily]

Beijing Dance Theater's latest presentation, Poisonous Apple, is to debut in December. Chen Nan reports.

Lots of green apples dot the stage as a dancer with red lipstick, smoky eyes and a black high-collar fluffy dress walks slowly. A group of dancers holding an apple each emerge behind her and move gracefully after the lead dancer starts to run.

This scene is from a rehearsal of Poisonous Apple, the latest work of 43-year-old leading modern dancer-choreographer Wang Yuanyuan.

Performed by members of her Beijing Dance Theater, a contemporary ballet troupe, the show will premiere in the Chinese capital on Dec 10. Poisonous Apple is the first of Wang's three-piece dance series, Poison. The other two, Opium and Hand of God, are expected to be staged next year.

Inspired by French poet Charles Baudelaire's famous work, The Flowers of Evil, Wang explores human emotions, such as desire, obsession, ambition and temptation, through body movements.

"We are poisoned by many things, like falling in love, chasing dreams and worshiping idols. Our lives and moods are influenced and changed by such things," says Wang, the founder and artistic director of Beijing Dance Theater.

"Like the poet wrote, these desires fill the soul beyond capacity."

Alongside excerpts from the troupe's other works, The Nightingale and the Rose, and Farewell, Shadows from the trilogy Wild Grass, Wang led the dancers to give a 20-minute display of Poisonous Apple in Austria at the Festspielhaus St. Polten in February. She developed the piece in the course of her residency there.

Wang founded the Beijing Dance Theater in 2008 along with lighting director Han Jiang and set designer Tan Shaoyuan. The troupe has since tried to connect with audiences by probing into the human mind with Wang's choreography.

Born and raised in Beijing, Wang became a professional dancer at age 10 after joining the middle school of Beijing Dance Academy, where she learned ballet.