Song Dynasty poet is star of new stage production

Dance piece based on work of Su Dongpu currently on tour after performances in Beijing and Shanghai, Chen Nan reports.

Dancer, choreographer, painter and visual artist Shen Wei often looks to the past for inspiration.

One of his epic productions, Scroll Painting, which was performed as part of the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, was viewed by billions of people around the world. In the breathtaking piece, dancers performed against the backdrop of a constantly changing giant LED scroll displaying Chinese ink paintings. Shen pushed the presentation to new boundaries with his modern choreography, which seemed to replace the brush with the human body, presenting a new vision of an old art form.

His latest offering, a contemporary dance production called Dongpo: Life in Poems, turns to Chinese traditional culture and history once again, this time to focus on Su Dongpo, a Song Dynasty (960-1279) poet, whose work is still celebrated in China today.