Wang Yabin Photo: Courtesy of Yabin Studio

Chinese dancer and choreographer Wang Yabin will stage her new work The Moon Opera at Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts from October 4-6, the dancer said in a press release on Sunday. A commissioned work for the 2015 Shanghai International Arts Festival, the dance drama will also be staged at the festival from October 19-20.

Adapted from writer Bi Feiyu's novel of the same name, the performance also marks the beginning of the seventh season of Wang's annual Yabin and Her Friends series of performances.

"It has been a dream of mine for years. Xiao Yanqiu, (the leading character) a person who chases and explores how to live one's life, is just tailored to me," Wang, the performance's producer and choreographer, said in the release.

"It is a story about people. It focuses on people's emotions and the expression of human kindness," added Wang, who will be playing Xiao. According to the press release, the dance performance's narrative structure will challenge the imaginations of audiences through the coexistence of reality and dreams.

Since the first season of Yabin and Her Friends in 2009, Wang has evolved to become an innovative choreographer, adding more modern dance elements to her original classic dance repertoire. The new drama will continue her troupe's international collaboration style that the troupe established with its fifth season Genesis, as well as feature well-known Chinese dancers such as Li Xing and Bi Ran.

"How can we produce works that win international applause? How do we launch a universal art dialogue? These are questions our generation needs to think about. The Moon Opera is about traditional opera singers, and so we have a master, Pei Yanling, acting as a consultant to enlighten us," she said.

Fu Jun, a professor at Peking University, wrote in the preface to the performance: "The Moon Opera, which I'd rather call the moon dreamer, is a story about love. Set in the traditional Chinese classic opera of Chang'e Flying to the Moon, it tells a modern-day love story of a woman constantly struggling with her dreams and harsh realities."

Global Times