A five-minute dance performance that captivated audiences during the 2024 Spring Festival Gala by China Media Group is set to take on a new life as a full-length stage production. Blending Chinese classical dance with modern technology, the work explores the pursuit of dreams and the resilience of the human spirit.
Titled Jinli: The Ascent, the original dance featured performers mimicking the graceful movements of koi fish, a traditional Chinese symbol of good fortune and prosperity. The performance won widespread acclaim when it appeared on China Media Group's annual Spring Festival Gala, one of the country's most-watched television programs.
Now, China Media Group and Beijing Dance Academy are expanding the celebrated work into a full-length dance drama of the same title. The production will premiere at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Nov 28 and 29.
Tang Chenglong, who directed the original dance, returns as chief choreographer and creative director. Xu Rui, president of Beijing Dance Academy, is the chief scriptwriter, while Gao Guangjian, an honorary artist of the NCPA and a renowned stage designer, leads the visual concept and stage design.
The production brings together dancers from Beijing Dance Academy, including Hua Xiaoyi, Wang Silong, and Tan Qingyu, alongside students from the academy's Chinese classical dance and Chinese folk dance departments.
Chinese classical dance provides the work's physical and aesthetic foundation, while contemporary dance introduces a broader, more diverse movement vocabulary. Mechanical stage platforms, aerial rigging and digital visual effects help combine an immersive underwater world that shifts between reality and fantasy.
In the first half, mechanical stage installations evoke the mysterious stillness of a pond's depths. In the second, aerial systems take center stage, enabling dancers to execute demanding movements that capture the fish's struggle to break free from its surroundings.
Beyond its visual spectacle, the dance drama draws on the cultural symbolism of koi fish, exploring themes of joy, aspiration and freedom.
Following its Beijing premiere, Jinli: The Ascent is scheduled to tour major theaters across China in 2027.
