Aficionados call it the crown of Chinese dance, and it comes around just every five years.

Followers of the art form would never miss the festival that features some 14 dance shows produced by local ensembles in east China's Fujian Province at the Third National Dance Drama Festival.

The event runs from November 28 to December 14, and showcases the very best of Chinese dance shows.

It is organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Fujian provincial government, with the dances staged in Fuzhou, Xiamen and Quanzhou -- all scenic cities of Fujian.

Except for three ballet works that include the Tianjin Ballet Company's "Jingwei," based on a Chinese mythology known to every household, Guangzhou Ballet Company's "Mei Lanfang" and Liaoning Ballet Company's "The Last Emperor," all other productions are folk or traditional Chinese dances adopted from local stories and feature rich folk culture.

The full-length ballet "Mei Lanfang" is a journey through the life and art of the legendary Peking Opera performer Mei Lanfang (1894-1961).

The ballet follows the arc of Mei's career, from the blossoming of his talent to his painful retreat from the stage for refusing to perform for the invaders during the Japanese occupation of Beijing, to the even greater heights he scaled after his return to the theatre before his death in 1961.

"Mei Lanfang" does full justice to Mei's artistic passion and the subtle ways in which he captured the beauty of the female characters he played.

Fujian Song and Dance Theatre from the host province and Daqing Song and Dance Theatre from Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province present two dances to portray the local women's life.

Fujian's five-act dance "Hui'an Women" depicts a typical Hui'an woman named A Lan. Mainly living in the coastal Hui'an County in Fujian, Hui'an women have been known for their diligence and courage, their dresses and hair decoration. Earning a living by fishing, Hui'an women devote all their lives to help their husbands struggle with the sea life.

The "Guandong Women" by Daqing Song and Dance Theatre features a group of hard-working women in Northeast China.

Hohhot Folk Song and Dance Ensemble from North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region produces a show which tells the historical marriage between a king of the nomadic Xiongnu tribe and Wang Zhaojun in early Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).

Born in southern China, Wang Zhaojun is chosen into the imperial court for her rare beauty but never meets the Emperor Yuandi.

The Xiongnu King comes to the Han capital of Chang'an (today's Xi'an of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province) to seek the hand of a princess of the Han royal family in marriage. Wang volunteers to marry him in the hope of ending the long-lasting war between Han and Xiongnu.

Choreographed by Mei Changsheng, the dance vividly displays Wang bidding farewell to her home, and climbing over mountains and wading rivers, carrying with her the deep love for her country and the wish for a lasting peace.

Hunan Song and Dance Theatre's "Ancient Han Beauty" draws inspiration from a woman's remains excavated from the tombs of the Western Han Dynasty at Mawangdui in the early 1970s in Hunan Province.

Guangdong Song and Dance Theatre's "Red Bombax in Wind and Rain" evolves around a couple of young revolutionary lovers who devoted themselves in a 1927 revolt in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

And "Soul of Porcelain" by Jiangxi Song and Dance Theatre from the home province of China's porcelain productions creates a ballet of the porcelain makers' life and love.

(China Daily December 5, 2003)