Get set for poetry in motion

Sangjijia's Fragile Beauty will be staged during the Beijing Dance Festival. [Photo provided to China Daily]

An ethnic Tibetan's production is just one highlight as 15 contemporary dance works are staged by professional troupes from 10 countries, plus other 47 choreographed works, starting Wednesday. Chen Nan reports.

In 1999, Sangjijia arrived in Hong Kong and worked as a dancer at the City Contemporary Dance Company of Hong Kong. As an ethnic Tibetan from Northwest China's Gansu province, who spent his childhood herding on the grasslands and listening to monks chanting mantras, Sangjijia found himself in a totally different world－Cantonese pop songs and high-rise architecture.

"I have two favorite things when it comes to Hong Kong. One is the fireworks, which illuminate the sky over Victoria Harbour during holidays, and the other is Stephen Chow's comic movies, especially the sound of his laughter," he says.

Last year, Sangjijia returned to the Hong Kong dance company as its resident choreographer.

His new work Fragile Beauty is a tribute to the city.

Premiered in Hong Kong on June 3, the production will be staged in the capital on July 22 during the upcoming Beijing Dance Festival.

"I have lived in many cities. Whenever I return to those places, I go back to where I lived and worked. When I returned to Hong Kong, I did the same thing," says Sangjijia, 42, who studied at the Minzu University of China and became a professional dancer with the Guangdong Modern Dance Company in 1993.

He moved to Paris in 1996 after winning the gold medal at the Paris International Modern Dance Competition, and began his career there as a star dancer/choreographer.

In 1998, Sangjijia lived in New York for a year after winning the Asian Cultural Council fellowship and the American Dance Festival Scholarship.