A stage photo of  Cinderella. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

What triggered the choreographer to set the story during World War II was that Sergei Prokofiev wrote the music for Cinderella during the 1940s.

"His music, which I listened to for all those years, it seems that all my ideas fell into place," the choreographer said.

According to Jiang Tao, vice-general manager of Tianqiao Performing Arts Center, about 850 performances will be staged at the venue in 2018.

Many international stage productions will be brought to the venue. Besides Bourne's Cinderella, other highlights will see National Theater's acclaimed West-End play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, will be staged at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center from May 24 to 27, and theatrical ice skating company, The Imperial Ice Stars's production, Swan Lake on Ice, will be staged at the venue from August 15 to 19.

The second Lao She International Theater Festival, which paying tribute to Lao She (1899-1966), one of the most famous Chinese novelist and dramatist, will return from September to October this year.