Li Chengxiang

Li Chengxiang, whose family came from Qingyuan, Hebei, was born in Harbin in 1931. He began dancing in a performing troupe in 1949 and later went to Tibet to study Tibetan dance. In 1955 he entered the first choreography class of the Beijing Dance School under Soviet teachers, then assisted Pyotr Gusev and took part in staging the dance drama The Mermaid. In 1964 he co-choreographed the ballet The Red Detachment of Women with Jiang Zuhui and Wang Xixian, also dancing the landlord Nan Batian, at its September premiere at the Tianqiao Theatre. He went on to choreograph Ode to Yimeng and Lin Daiyu, led the National Ballet from 1984 and wrote Qingqing Balei. He died in Beijing on 14 December 2018.