To celebrate the fifth anniversary of Beijing Dance Theatre (BDT), its team is taking on the brooding, pensive Hamlet Performing Arts.

Choreographer Wang Yuanyuan has swept up some of dance’s most prestigious awards, and her collaboration list reads like Who’s Who. Most notably, she worked with Zhang Yimou on the National Ballet of China’s (NBC) Raise the Red Lantern, as well as with Feng Xiaogang and Tan Dun on the 2006 film The Banquet, and it was there that something clicked. This year, her company Beijing Dance Theatre celebrates its fifth anniversary with their own version of the Prince of Denmark.

Today at BDT’s picturesque new space, Wang is upstairs with Hamlet and Ophelia (Wu Shanshan). Rehearsals are still at that wriggling, giggling stage, where upside-down lifts slip away, and heads thud gently to the floor. Wu is throwing his visceral energy and dramatic power into Hamlet, but although his fluidity is unchanged, he may be feeling his 32 years – he wears braces on both ankles and has tied T-shirts around his knees. Ballet is a brutal business.

Wang regardsHamletas a safe box-office bet, "With Western audiences, I feel a lot of freedom," she says, "even an abstract program, they can accept it. Chinese audiences want a story with a beginning, middle and end."

Admission: 100 - 1,500 RMB

Date: Dec. 3-4, 2013 (7:30 p.m.)

Venue: Tianqiao Theatre (天桥剧场)

Tel: 86 10 8315 6338

Address: 30 Beiwei Road, Xicheng District

西城区区北纬路30号