Veteran helps Wang Yabin jazz up her dreams

American Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish (left) says her cooperation with Chinese dancer Wang Yabin in Dream in Three Episodes has brought her closer to China. Zou Hong / China Daily

At first, Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish, a former star of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the New York-based modern dance company, wasn't sure about the outcome of her recent visit to Beijing.

Since her arrival in late July, Roxas-Dobrish has spent days practicing for a dance project called Dream in Three Episodes that will be presented at the National Center for the Performing Arts on Aug 22 and 23. Her collaborator on the work is Chinese dancer Wang Yabin.

When the 56-year-old veteran American dancer-choreographer watched Chinese TV soap operas, she had noticed cast members conveying their emotions with "dramatic facial expressions", she says adding that as an audience member, she felt nothing.

"It's the opposite way for me to express feelings onstage. What I want is to transmit from inside out. I was not sure if Yabin could understand how I wanted the piece done," says Roxas-Dobrish, who performed in China with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1985.

This is her first time working with a Chinese dancer.

However, two weeks of rehearsals with Wang put Roxas-Dobrish at ease.

"She is just like a sister from another mother. Her movements flow with the right chemistry," said Roxas-Dobrish of Wang, 30, during an interview with China Daily before she left Beijing on Aug 5.

During one practice session on a humid afternoon, when Wang was swirling to a song by late American jazz singer-pianist Shirley Horn at the Yabin Studio in the outskirts of Beijing, Roxas-Dobrish took her photograph. Wang opened the studio in 2009.

"Yabin is like a sponge, absorbing everything with an open heart. She is like an extension of myself in my youth," says Roxas-Dobrish. "We are very like-minded in many aspects of dance and philosophy. What we want the audience to feel is to savor the movement. It is like tasting food, not just chewing."

Roxas-Dobrish says her cooperation with Wang has also brought her closer to China.

As part of the latest production of Yabin and Her Friends, an annual dance performance started by Wang in 2009, Dream in Three Episodes has solo, duo and group dancing. The 60-minute show fulfills Wang's longtime desire to work on dreams.

"The relationship between dreams and reality is very fascinating. Sometimes the two mingle," says Wang, who started to learn Chinese folk dance at age 9 in Tianjin. She later graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy.

The National Dance Competition winner is also known for a dance sequence from Zhang Yimou's movie House of Flying Daggers (2004) and her performances at CCTV's Spring Festival galas.

Working with Roxas-Dobrish has fulfilled one of Wang's dreams.

Despite taking jobs in films and TV and working as a writer, Wang has always preserved her identity as a dancer.

Last year, she worked with established Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on a project named Genesis. It is part of the fifth season of Yabin and Her Friends that she performed in France, Italy and Germany. The world tour will continue until 2015.

"Such collaborations helped me discover my potential. I had gotten used to dancing to classical music but now Roxas-Dobrish has me dancing to jazz," Wang says.