A scene fromSleeping Beauty. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"I am incredibly thrilled and excited to be joining the cast of Sleeping Beauty, dancing my first principal role as Aurora," she says. "The uniqueness about the show is a lot of acting in it besides dancing. I went back to when I was a little girl, running around in my garden. Aurora is a free spirit and hopefully that will come across."

"Every production of Matthew's, especially Sleeping Beauty, has strong characters, which live through the entire show. He told us that the characters have to be relatable to us," adds Liam Mower, who plays the roles of Count Lilac and a bad fairy in Sleeping Beauty.

Sleeping Beauty also kicks off the New Classic Arts Festival of Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center. Fifteen theater productions will be staged through this December, including a show brought by Blue Man Group, which combines rock music, dance and multimedia; the comedy Hotel Paradiso performed by German theater troupe Familie Floz; and the drama Tomorrow by UK theater company Vanishing Point.