Founded in 2008, Beijing Dance Theater (BDT) is led by its choreographer Wang Yuanyuan together with visual artists Tan Shaoyuan and Hanjiang. It has collaborated with many internationally renowned dramatists, musicians and designers, enriching the international dance stages with its world-class productions, each of which represents the highest level of Chinese contemporary dance.

Born and raised in Beijing, Wang Yuanyuan is one of China’s leading modern dance choreographers. She prides herself on being rooted in Chinese traditions, while at the same time producing innovative, authentic, and thought-provoking contemporary dance works for the world stage.

2016 marks the fifth anniversary of the BDT, a great occasion for another collaboration between Wang and Feng. The dance drama Hamlet is borne out of the film, and adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This is special Chinese Hamlet at once coming out of and departing from the film, it explores Hamlet’s psychological landscape from a fresh perspective. We confront his melancholy, his compassion for humanity, his doubt in the face of death and destruction. We present before you the beauty and darkness we found within Hamlet.

The story is set in no particular time , With the main characters extracted from the original work (the Ghost, the New King, the Queen, the prince and the Floral Spirit), we shape a story of life, death and love. The Ghost of the murdered King haunts those alive; the Prince avenges his father and thereby destroys love and life; the New King, the Queen and the courtiers angage in transactions of soul and flesh, struggling between good and evil. This is a tragedy of epic proportions and the stage presentation surmounts a new summit in contemporary dance theatre.