Hamlet en pointe

A star choreographer packages the madness, grief and rage of Shakespeare's prince of Denmark into a dance drama all her own, Chen Nan reports.

Wang Yuanyuan first collaborated with renowned filmmaker Feng Xiaogang in 2006, choreographing dance sequences for composer Tan Dun's music in Feng's film, The Banquet, an adaptation of Hamlet. "It's an alternative work compared to my other films," Feng told Wang on the set, referring to his departure from the comedy films he was known for. "It fulfilled my longtime desire to interpret traditional Chinese aesthetics." Sharing the same understanding for traditional Chinese aesthetics, Wang choreographed several dance pieces for the actors, including Zhang Ziyi, Zhou Xun and Daniel Wu.

"Both of us enjoyed our collaboration very much," Wang recalls.