Classic ballet takes to the stage on landmark anniversary

On Sept 26, 1964, The Red Detachment of Women premiered at the Tianqiao Theater in Beijing.

Since then, it has established itself and been recognized as a classic work of the National Ballet of China.

The ballet tells the story of a rural woman, Wu Qionghua, who escapes a life of slavery and joins an all-female Communist Party army battalion led by commander Hong Changqing on Hainan island during the civil war in the early 1930s.

On Sept 25 and 26, the ballet production was staged at the same Beijing venue, six decades later, as part of the year-long celebration of its premiere's 60th anniversary.

Du Mingxin, 96, one of the composers of the piece, Bai Shuxiang, the former ballerina who played the leading role of Wu in 1964 and 88-year-old conductor Bian Zushan, who performed music for the ballet production in 1964, sat among the audience.

The celebration unites nearly all generations of dancers of the Chinese ballet company, including Zhang Jian, Qiu Yunting and Ning Long, who play the role of Wu in the performances.

The Red Detachment of Women kicked off the 65th celebration of the ballet company. In the following three months, the National Ballet of China will stage both Chinese and Western ballet works, such as Cinderella, and Dream of the Red Chamber.