Seizing the top dance award in the country, the large-scale collective dance performance -- "Dynamic Yunnan" -- will be staged in Beijing April 10-16 led by the famous dance artist Yang Liping as art director, choreographer and leading actress.

To compile the 100-minute-long programme Yang spent more than one year in Yunnan Province , where various ethnic groups have been living for centuries. Yang combined highlights from various dances to create the work which features mostly indigenous villagers, including a five-year-old girl.

Yang explained that the villagers have a strong admiration for the province's mountains and landscape. As followers of animism (the belief that inanimate objects and natural phenomena have living souls) they try to communicate with the world and gods via dance.

In the recently-finished Fourth China "Water Lily Award" Dance Competition, the programme won the Golden Award, Best Choreography Award, Best Actress Award, Best Costume Design and Excellent Performance Award, with an overwhelming audience satisfaction rate of 97.5 percent. The work has been evaluated as a "Re-initiation of Folk Dances" by experts.

Since its debut performance in Kunming , capital of Yunnan, from August 2003, the "Dynamic Yunnan" has had 129 tour performances across the country. By the end of this year it is expected to travel to the United States, Japan, Singapore and Australia.