Red Detachment gets 60th anniversary tour

As the first original ballet production by the National Ballet of China, Red Detachment of Women celebrates the 60th anniversary of its premiere this year.

Two shows of the classic production were staged over the weekend in Haikou, Hainan province.

On Wednesday, the ballet will be staged in Shenzhen, followed by more shows in other cities in Guangdong province, including Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Guangzhou.

The company is also staging the production at the Tianqiao Theater in Beijing until Sunday.

More events to mark the 60th anniversary of the ballet's premiere will be announced, according to the National Ballet of China.

Red Detachment of Women has been performed around the world over 4,000 times since its premiere in Beijing in 1964. It is best known in the United States as the ballet performed for former US president Richard Nixon during his visit to China in 1972.

Based on the film of the same name, it tells the story of a rural woman, Wu Qionghua, who escapes a life of slavery and joins an all-female Communist Party army battalion led by commander Hong Changqing on Hainan Island during the civil war in the early 1930s.

It has become one of the most popular Chinese ballet productions thanks to its successful combination of ballet with Chinese folk dance and traditional Chinese opera.

"We staged the classic production in Hainan for our first stop celebrating the 60th anniversary of its premiere, a meaningful location since the story takes place in Hainan," said Feng Ying, a veteran dancer and the director of the National Ballet of China.

She also added that Red Detachment of Women continues to evolve, as a new generation of dancers perform it every year.