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In recent years, there has also been a widely televised biannual CCTV dance competition.
Many youngsters have risen from these contests to become stars.
The entrants display their formidable skills and stunts. For college students, such competitions are often their first public outings before enrolling in art troupes.
Works that have earned fame from dance contests include "Stepping Song," which imitates a Han Dynasty dance, "The Tang Emperor's Concubine," and "Poet Li Bai."
Over the past decade, with Chinese performing arts in full blossom, many excellent dance dramas have been born. They became China's key works on the stage. These include "Dunhuang My Dreamland," "Terra Cotta Warriors," and "A Handful of Wild Jujubes." These dramas stood out, both for the dancing itself, as well as for their stage designs and overall visual effects.
Chinese dance strolled outside starting with ballet. "The Red Detachment of Women," which has been staged 2,500 times in China over the last 45 years, is frequently invited for performances in renowned international theaters.
"The Red Detachment Of Women" and the 2001 ballet piece, "Raise The Red Lantern," are both in the repertoire of the National Ballet Troupe. "Raise The Red Lantern" has been dubbed a new classic. With film director Zhang Yimou at the helm, it dazzles foreign audiences with both -Cheung-sum-wearing ballerinas and the show's overall visual extravagance.
Zhao Ruheng, former director of National Ballet Troupe, said, "Upon the establishment of the National Ballet Troupe, the late premier Zhou Enlai and other leaders of the country were thinking that China could communicate with other countries using the western art form. Today we have realized this goal. We have reached the point where, without words, we can communicate with foreign audiences using their familiar art form ballet. Our troupe performed "The Red Detachment Of Women" and "Raise The Red Lantern" in Italy. One Italian critic said "if "The Red Detachment Of Women" was a propaganda tool in the past, we now think it's a cultural treasure of China, while "Raise the Red Lantern" represents modern China". His comments mean that we have reached the goal of the troupe's establishment, to realize our nation's soft power."
Stage show "Sounds of Yunnan" is performed at the Yulan Grand Theater in Dongguan City, south China's Guangdong Province, July 30, 2009. "Sounds of Yunnan" mixes music and dance, presenting the sounds of hundreds of musical instruments selected from southwest China's Yunnan Province. Yang Liping, a well-known Chinese female dancer, stars in the show.
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