In Luo's opinion, the dance drama festival emphasized the current development of dance as an art form and its prospect to break through its boundaries in the future.

A special show of top Chinese young dancers, including Wang Yabin, Zhang Aoyue, Liu Yan and Hu Yang, on Saturday marked the end of the festival. Each has taken a turn to present one of their representative works.

According to Zhang, the festival, since its launch on Sept 5, attracted more than 16,000 people into the theater, and had 4.5 million viewers online by Sunday.

The 47 shows of the 23 dance dramas take up more than 30 percent of the performances on show after Beijing's theaters in late July resumed operation after the COVID-19 pandemic was put under control.