Creating a song and dance

In the past four decades the China Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble (COSDE), founded under the auspices of late premier Zhou Enlai and vice-premier Chen Yi, has been responsible for entertaining foreign dignitaries and other visitors.

COSDE is now at the National Center for the Performing Arts and becomes the first Chinese ensemble to perform at "The Egg's" opera hall this week.

Directed by He Lishan, the two-hour show combines many popular numbers from previous COSDE productions and some new works based on the theme A Journey Around the World.

For this show, COSDE has invited dancers from India, New Zealand, South Korea and Spain to teach their folk dances, such as the Indian kathak and the Maori tribal dances.

"Previously we imitated Indan dance numbers from movies of the 1970s and 1980s, but after visiting India recently I found there were many different kinds of dances. I was most impressed by kathak. The footwork is so difficult but impressive," says choreographer Zhang Hao.

In addition to dance, singers such as Tang Can, Zhang Yan, Liu Weiwei and Guo Rong will sing folk songs from different countries.

"The National Center for the Performing Arts has the best stage equipment in China and I try to make use all of the advanced techniques to create impressive visual effects," set designer Lu Hong says.

7:30 pm

Next to Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square

400 620 6006, 400 810 3721, 6585 5755

(China Daily 01/11/2008 page20)