Star dances through adversity to help others

The dancer-choreographer says her research on the topic of dance therapy started in 2010, two years after her stage career ended. She notes that it allows her to "continue to dance in a different way".

She also studied with Zheng Xiaoyun, director and research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Religions. The result of those studies was a book, published in 2014, Dance With Hands, which focuses on the hand gestures of Peking Opera — a traditional Chinese art form. Her second book, Impression of Hands, was released in 2021, and is about her research on hand gestures in classical Chinese dance, with a focus on the murals of Dunhuang's renowned Mogao Caves in Northwest China's Gansu province.

"She never stops continuing to dance and trying to push the boundaries of the art form. She is a great example, which inspires her students," says Chinese Dancers Association president Feng Shuangbai, who was also Liu's professor when she pursued her doctoral degree at the Chinese National Academy of Arts.