Wang Yabin Chinese dancer-choreographer [Photo/China Daily]

"It felt like traveling with a time machine. When we saw those mural paintings, we had conversations with the past. I hope the audience will share the similar feeling when they watch An Individual Soliloquy," Wang says.

The 35-year-old Wang, from Tianjin, started learning traditional Chinese folk dance at the age of 6. She is a graduate of the Beijing Dance Academy and is best known for choreographing a dance sequence in Zhang Yimou's 2004 movie House of Flying Daggers and her performances at CCTV's Spring Festival galas.

Besides Hirahara, Wang has collaborated with international dancer-choreographers, including the former star of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish, with whom Wang choreographed a dance work, Dream in Three Episodes, and Sidi Larbi Chekaoui from Belgium, who choreographed Genesis.

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. Rojo invited Wang to be part of the English National Ballet's She Said project, which comprised Wang's piece, M-Dao, Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Broken Wings and Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton's Fantastic Beings, and premiered at Sadler's Wells in London in 2016.

In April 2017, She Said won the 2017 Laurence Olivier Award for outstanding achievement in dance for expanding its repertoire.

An Individual Soliloquy, will tour nationwide after its premiere in Beijing.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn