Scenes from the dance drama The Palace Through Time. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Dance drama The Palace Through Time is being staged in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, until Jan 2, the first stop of its national tour.

The drama was inspired by the Yongle Palace, a Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) Taoist temple in Ruicheng county, Shanxi province. Centering on the 1950s relocation of Yongle Palace, the production uses the language of movement to breathe life into ancient artifacts, bringing cultural treasures that once lay dormant in museums onto the stage.

Scenes from the dance drama The Palace Through Time. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Yongle Palace was built between 1247 and 1358 with a sprawling area of nearly 248,000 square meters. It was relocated as a protective measure in the late 1950s about 2 kilometers north of its original site, as it was in an area that was to be used for the Yellow River's Sanmenxia Dam. In 1961, it was designated as a national key cultural heritage site, preserving its historical and artistic significance for future generations.

Scenes from the dance drama The Palace Through Time. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Featuring star dancers, including Zhang Han, The Palace Through Time, which is co-produced by the China Oriental Performing Arts Group, fuses timeless history with the pulse of modernity, telling the story of artisans and cultural guardians who preserved these treasures.

Scenes from the dance drama The Palace Through Time. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] 

Scenes from the dance drama The Palace Through Time. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] 

Dancer Zhang Han. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]