MOVES AND NUMBERS

Tao Dance Theater will mark a decade with performances in Beijing, Chen Nan reports.

Folk singer-songwriter Xiao He was invited by a friend to watch a contemporary dance performance by Tao Dance Theater in Beijing in 2009.

Xiao He, whose real name is He Guofeng, was reluctant because he found "contemporary dance hard to understand" and had never watched performances by the Beijing-based company before that. But when the show opened with the music of US composer Steve Reich, whose work Xiao He liked, the Chinese singer was intrigued.