Art director Zhou Jie talks about his upcoming multi-style dance show at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center.

SH: Which styles of dance does the show involve?
ZJ: All kinds - folk and international, modern and classical. There’s also jazz, hip hop, tap, Latin, belly, folk, modern. We’re using so many styles because we want to represent the diversity and changeability of Shanghai.

SH: How do you make your show stand out from other dance performances?
ZJ: I think our huge mix of style sets us apart. We’ve tried to make the show as eye-catching as possible. The stage is split into two parts, and we use four different light effects to create a real spectacle.

SH: Did you do all the choreography yourself?
ZJ: No. It’s such a big show that it would have been impossible to choreograph it all ourselves. We used other people’s work for parts of it.

SH: What’s the hardest thing about preparing such a big show?
ZJ: Co-ordinating all the dancers. To perform a show like this, we need about 40 dancers. They each play several characters throughout the performance. This takes quite a bit of planning! They are real troupers; they get hurt, fall ill, catch colds, but they battle on! We want to promote young dancers, and allow audiences to get know them.

SH: What’s it like being a dancer?
ZJ: I feel like I’m married to it! I have 34 years’ experience in the world of dance. Dancers themselves have short careers. They go to dance school when they’re five or six, dance through their teens and twenties, then by the time they hit 30 they retire. You have to be dedicated to the art to choose a career that will be so short.

SH: Does retirement always spell the end of a dancer’s career?
ZJ: No way – take me for example! It’s been 24 years since I left the stage, and my life is incredibly full. I’ve dedicated myself to the development of dance in China, and I tried new things like movie acting.

SH: Any other projects in the pipeline?
ZJ: Yes, we have two more shows coming up after Dance Highlights. One of them will be Pengyue (The Flight to the Moon) – the classic love story, which we will interpret in a modern style next year. - Emma Chi