Chinese legendary stories have always been good sources for dramas and operas. Just one example is Goddess and the Dreamer.

Starting from mid April and running until the Mid-autumn Festival, this dance drama will launch a tour in cities like Beijing, Guangzhou and Macau.

The Zhengzhou Song & Dance Theater is still celebrating its win in 2011 of the golden award at the 8th Lotus Awards, one of the major dance awards in China.

Following one of the fairy tales on the goddess of Luo River and based on two poems written by Cao Zhi, a poet during the Three Kingdoms (220-280) and son of famous general Cao Cao, Goddess and the Dreamer begins with a dream. Cao Zhi dreams that upon arriving at the Luo River, he sees a beautiful woman dancing. She seems very close but it is hard to reach her. Then he is awakened by the beating of war drums. Together with his elder brother Cao Pi, the two defeat their enemy. But when they return, Cao Zhi finds the wife of his brother, who was taken from their enemy's family, is the woman in his dream.

The two brothers spilt in fights for power, and Cao Zhi endures seeing his dream woman marry his brother. Meanwhile, the woman, named Zhen Fu, is not happy at all and suffers as a victim of war.

The plot is delicately woven as the audience finds echoes of the beginning at the end - the drama ends with a dream-like scene. And the way Zhen ends her life is similar to how Cao Zhi awakens to reality at the beginning.

Though it is a work created for the beauty of gentleness, in contrast to the troupe's previous work Shaolin in the Wind, which is known for the beauty of masculinity, it is not purely a collection of "long-sleeve dances." Some scenes like the onset of war, which is punctuated by a group of drums beating, are very passionate.

According to Feng Shuangbai, dance critic and script writer for Goddess and Dreamer, when he was writing the drama, he thought about how to get the lives of ancient people to resonate with the modern audience.

Feng believes that "family affection cut by power" is something ancient and modern humans have in common.

"In today's society, many complicated things drive people into fights," he said.

By Wei Xi