Nature and the folk arts have influenced Yang's career.

Growing up in the mountainous areas of the Dali Bai autonomous prefecture, Yang, the eldest child in her family, learned to take care of the family from a young age and helped her parents with farming and herding animals.

Her grandmother once told her that dancing was a way to communicate with the gods.

Though she never had professional dance training, Yang joined the Yunnan Xishuangbanna Song and Dance Troupe in 1979.

The same year, she won a top provincial award as the lead dancer for Peacock Princess, a dance drama by the troupe.

The next year, at age 22, she joined Beijing-based China Central Ethnic Song and Dance Ensemble.

Yang won national recognition for Spirit of Peacock, a work that she both choreographed and performed in 1986.

In 2003, she left the ethnic ensemble and started out as an independent artist. Yang then directed Dynamic Yunnan, a dance drama that became a sensation.

She traveled throughout the province to seek inspiration and ended up collecting not just repertoires of folk dances and songs but also bringing back talented folk artists, all of whom appeared in it.

Dynamic Yunnanhas been staged over 3,000 times worldwide and is now performed as a tourist attraction in Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan.

Pingtan Impression, dancer-choreographer Yang Liping's latest work, shows off many elements of Pingtan's nature and culture. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]