Moving performance: Dancer and choreographer Ta Thuy Chi will dance in her show We Were There at the HCM City Opera House. — VNS Photo

HCM CITY (VNS) — Female dancer and choreographer Ta Thuy Chi will stage a show in HCM City this month, marking her return after four years of study in China.

The show We Were There will be held on October 25 and 26 at the Opera House.

Chi will dance with To Nhu and Chuc Quynh. They will perform in costumes by designer Thien Chuong, who has collaborated with director Quoc Trung.

The 90-minute event includes Co Huong (Native Land), Khong Gioi Han (Unlimitedness) and We're There, all contemporary dances and choreographed by Chi in co-operation with Nguyen Ngoc Anh, one of the city's young talents in choreography.

The 27-year-old woman, a choreography graduate of the Beijing Dance Institute, said she had embarked on a personal journey that she hopes will contribute to the development of Viet Nam's contemporary dance.

Performing since the age of five, Chi was sent to study at the Guangdong Dance School, a prestigious centre established in 1959 when she was only 12.

"I learned new and useful lessons from my Chinese lecturers. My colleagues and I worked hard every day, from early morning to late night. I achieved good results in my studies and performed in several major plays at the school," she recalled.

After six years of studies, Chi decided to stay and work as a major dancer for the Shenzhen Splendid China Development Company, a professional troupe specialising in folk and modern dance.

She performed in many solo and group dance shows, improving her skills in different styles, including folk, contemporary dance and ballet.

"It was a chance to improve my performance skills. I learned that dancing is not a game, and studying the arts is my destiny," she said.

Facing many challenges, including homesickness, Chi earned top prizes at dance competitions in China.

In 2005, she returned home and performed in music and dance programmes staged by the HCM City Ballet and Symphony Orchestra.

Thanks to the support of HCM City authorities, she received a full scholarship from the Government to study choreography at the Beijing Dance Institute in 2009.

"I wanted to study choreography because as a dancer, choreographers play a very important role in developing the art and taking it to new heights," she said.

Chi said her studies had taught her many different aspects of dancing, but she also recognised that Viet Nam's traditional dances were "rich and could win the appreciation of foreign artists and audiences".

"I'm proud to have performed many dances in the Chinese and Western style, but only in the Vietnamese dances could I find myself," said Chi, a teacher at the HCM City Dance School. — VNS