Han Zhen is jointly responsible for directing and choreographing The Eternal Wave, which tells a story during China's modern revolutionary history. It has been performed 150 times since its premier in August 2019, and Han said she thinks the main difficulty in creating a stage work is bridging the gap between life details and the dance itself.

A director should exert her strength not only during creation but also after the work has been put on stage. The overall talents of a team determine the creation of a dance drama and the sustainability of its artistic quality in the long term.

Liu Zhen, one of the initiators and head of the youth dance company at the Beijing Dance Academy, said the art form is full of active thinking, spirituality and distillation of emotional contrast, and his priority is to find the "only accuracy" for the theme he wants to convey.

Cao Xueqin, a new biographical work he directed about the author of the classic novel, Dream of the Red Chamber, debuted during the festival.

The key to success of an art festival lies on whether the artistic works can hit a larger audience group and win people's hearts, and what platform it can provide for artists to express themselves, said Zhang Ligang, chairman of the board of Beijing Joyway Culture and Media Co Ltd, and also one of the festival's organizers.

"We have to present our academic research and perspectives as a pioneering dance drama festival," Zhang said, adding that the conference's aim was to discuss into the creation, development and market situation of dance dramas from several dimensions.