Chinese dancer plays star role in adaptation of Ibsen's work

"This year marks the 130th anniversary of the first production of the play in 1889. And the best way to pay tribute to this great writer is to keep his works alive in the contemporary theater scene."

Wang, who was born and raised in Tianjin, started learning traditional Chinese folk dance at the age of 6. She is a graduate of the Beijing Dance Academy and is best known for a dance sequence in Zhang Yimou's 2004 movie House of Flying Daggers and her performances at CCTV's Spring Festival galas.

International collaboration is a driving force in Wang's choreographic productions.

Since 2009, Wang, 35, has brought together dancers from around the world to take part in her annual production, Yabin and Her Friends.

Among the international artists she has worked with are Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, choreographer Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish and Japanese choreographer Shintaro Hirahara.

In 2016, Wang was invited by Tamara Rojo, a former prize-winning ballerina and now artistic director of the English National Ballet, to be one of three female choreographers of a female-themed dance project for the English National Ballet program. Titled She Said, the dance work, which opened at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London in April 2016, won the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in British theater.