Chinese part of celebrated global dance project

Wang Yabin is known for her productions M-Dao and Moon Opera.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Chinese dancer-choreographer Wang Yabin is expressive onstage but off it she is a soft-spoken person.

"A woman is like the ocean that looks quiet and peaceful but could be restless and roaring," she says.

The 33-year-old has turned this idea into her latest choreography work, titled M-Dao, part of the English National Ballet's She Said project.

The project, comprising Wang's piece, Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Broken Wings and Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton's Fantastic Beings, premiered at Sadler's Wells in London in 2016.

In April, the English National Ballet won the 2017 Laurence Olivier Award for outstanding achievement in dance for expanding its repertoire with She Said, and British choreographer Akram Khan's Giselle.

"It was my first internationally commissioned work. I am glad that as a Chinese artist I joined the challenging project," says Wang.

"Although I wasn't there when the English National Ballet accepted the award at the Royal Albert Hall, I was very excited about it."

The Laurence Olivier award is an annual honor established in 1976 and presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial British theater.

Since 2009, Wang has gathered dancers from around the world each year to present her production Yabin and Her Friends.

She has three productions so far - Genesis choreographed by Sidi Larbi Chekaoui from Belgium; Dream in Three Episodes that featured her choreography alongside Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; and Moon Opera choreographed by Wang.

With Yabin and Her Friends now in its ninth year, Wang plans to invite young dancers and choreographers from countries participating in China's Belt and Road Initiative to work together on a production that is scheduled to be staged in 2018.

In 2012, Wang met Tamara Rojo, the artistic director and principal dancer of the English National Ballet, in London for the first time when she was touring Britain with Genesis.