[Photo / China Daily]

The award-winning dancer-choreographer was chosen to study choreography under William Forsythe in Germany. He stayed with the Ballet Frankfurt and the Forsythe Company as assistant choreographer and dancer from 2002 until 2006. Sang creates pictures to illustrate his ideas and his life abroad also broadened his vision in choreography.

"I like painting. Painting is another way for me to explore the possibilities of body language and its influence on viewers. When I lived in Germany, I painted lots of pictures about contrast of light and shadows, which I think express drama. I use the approach in my choreography of Standing Before Darkness," he says.

"The company doesn't merely dance splendidly, it dances ferociously," Los Angeles Times once wrote about the dance when it toured the United States in 2012.

The performance is accompanied by live electronic music composed by accomplished Hong Kong musician, his long-time friend Dickson Dee, who took part in the dance rehearsals before composing his score.

Besides Sang's work, Sorrowful Song, choreographed by executive artistic director of Beijing Dance/LDTX Li Hanzhong and the company's veteran dancer Ma Bo, will also be staged in Beijing before they go on tour. Drawing inspiration from and paying tribute to the music of the Polish composer Henryk Gorecki, the work moves with the solemn sound of the composer's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs and contemplates the inevitability of tragic situations in human life.

IF YOU GO

Beijing Dance/LDTX

Theater: 16 Xiadianchangpo Village, Xidawang Lu (Road), Subway Line 1. Chaoyang district, Beijing.

7:30 pm, April 4 and 5.

400-818-3333.