Solo dance in darkness: retelling Xuan Zang's legendary journey

A shot of the dancer in "Restart the Journey" at the Baoli Theater on Dec 15, 2015. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A young dancer, dressed all in white, dances in the darkness. To the tune of the xiao (a vertical bamboo flute), he leans forward and throws his arms in the air, as if he wants to catch something. Then he buries his head in his chest, and again looks up into the dark. The light on him is the only bright part on the stage. His clothes almost become transparent under the light, covering a slim but strong body leaping, running, rolling on the stage.

Later he changes into red and dances to the accompaniment of the cello. A woman appears on the stage with a handful of golden sand and begins to spray it onto the dancer. The sand glimmers in the air when slowly falling on the dancer's red clothes.

This is the scene of "Restart the Journey", a solo dance in which the dancer plays the role of the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuan Zang, who translated many important Buddhist texts into Chinese and undertook an arduous journey to India during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). And his story is the source of the dance.