Designing the moves: Dance professor Chun Yoo Oh is choreographer of a collaborative ballet show between South Korean and Vietnamese artists. Entitled Cay No (Cross-Bow), the ballet will take place at the HCM City Opera House tonight. — Photo tuoitre.vn

HCM CITY (VNS) — South Korean dance professors Jung Sun Goo and Chun Yoo Oh have collaborated with the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera to revive a moving Vietnamese legend about Princess My Chau, her love and the Magical Bow pitfall.

Cay No (Crossbow) will premiere at the Opera House tonight.

It is choreographed by Chun, written and directed by Jung and performed by 10 dancers from HBSO.

Au Lac, as Viet Nam was known in ancient days, is a kingdom where peace reigns. King An Duong Vuong is building a new citadel and gets a magic crossbow to protect his kingdom. From a rocky hill, Prince Trong Thuy appears.

Princess My Chau falls in love with Trong Thuy and the two wed. Trong Thuy asks for the secret of the crossbow, but My Chau declines at first. Finally she reveals the secret and her kingdom is promptly attacked by enemy.

The king kills My Chau for her betrayal. The King who lost his country and the prince who lost his wife both commit suicide. A goddess takes the princess' spirit to an island nobody knew far away from Au Lac and comforts her.

Jung said that around the same time there was Princess Nakrang in South Korea who was betrayed by her lover and tricked into tearing the drum that protected the nation. Her father the king killed her and the himself, and the prince killed himself in remorse.

"I wrote the script and directed the stage to use art to bridge 2,000 years of time and the space between Viet Nam and South Korea."

Chun Yoo Oh said "I am delighted to have choreographed such a well-known Vietnamese legend. Through the story of Princess My Chau, I felt my heart become more open and enlightened."

Chun, who was born in Masan and grew up in Busan, graduated from Sunhwa Art School, Ewha Woman's University, and obtained a doctorate from the same university in art. She then studied Labanotation for recording and analysing humans in the UK before obtained another PhD in analysis of movement from Surrey University.

She worked at Seowon University as a professor in the dance department from 1991 to 2004. Her main dance works are Woman who Loved Passionately, Oscillation, Staring, the Joy.

In 2014 she choreographed and acted in Arirang Saigon at the Opera House.

Tickets for today's show are priced from VND80,000 to VND400,000. — VNS