(Photo provided to China Daily)
Speaking to China Daily about taking part in the festival, Korolenko, who started dancing at 6, and teaches contemporary dance in Novosibirsk, says: "I traveled to China when I was young and I have been interested in Chinese culture ever since. I am familiar with Chinese choreographer Hou Ying's works, which are very different from Russian contemporary dance works.
"It is a pleasure for me to work in China with the (non-professional) dancers."
Csaba Buday, the lecturer in contemporary dance and resident choreographer for dance in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology, in Australia, has been taking part in dance festivals in China even before the Beijing Dance Festival was launched.
His ties to dance festivals in China go back to 2008, when Tsao held a week-long contemporary dance festival in Guangzhou.
At that time, Buday traveled to China with 14 students from the Queensland University of Technology to perform at the Guangdong Modern Dance Festival.
In 2011, the festival was moved to Beijing and expanded to two weeks when it became the Beijing Dance Festival.
Buday's links with dance in the region go back a long way. The choreographer, who was the artist-in-residence at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts from 2000 to 2003, used to travel frequently to Guangzhou to teach and choreograph performances.
He later returned to Australia to take up a position at the Queensland University of Technology.
Now, he is in Beijing with 17 students－15 dancers and two handling technical production－from the university to perform The Tipping Point at the festival.
If you go
Wednesday through July 26. At Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center (9 Tianqiao Nandajie, Xicheng district), Beijing Dance/LDTX Theater (16 Xiadianchangpocun, Xidawang Road, Chaoyang district), and Shanxi Vocational College of Art (95 Bingzhou Dongjie, Taiyuan, Shanxi province). 010-6405-4842.
