Tales are the eternal witness coming to us from the dawn of time. They speak of the people who have existed in the past and all those through whom it has passed. By telling their stories, we add our souls to their journey through time and stir up the embers of their truth.

With their transformative power, they shape our collective past, present, and future, moulding our imagination and emotional language.

By immersing myself in this founding love story of Chinese culture, I could see through this window and grasp what is part of its collective emotional history. Doing so awakened in me all sorts of memories and emotions from my own culture and the tales that nurtured me since a young age. From these different influences, a strong bond that binds us all as human beings appeared to me as an obvious common trait: love.

Love - universal, passionate, and tragic - is the heart of this ballet. I sought to portray it as a common thread, weaving through the narrative. The eternal love of Zhinü and Niulang, the fraternal love with the Ox, the joyful love of the villagers, the tender and faithful love of Zhinü's sisters, the compassionate love of the magpies, and the violent but ultimately maternal love of the Queen Mother, all are manifestations of this universal theme.

Creating a brand new ballet around this beloved story for the Chinese people, mixing it with my own cultural references, pieces of music from the beautiful compositions of Ye, Debussy and Ravel and finding a common voice in all of this makes a unique piece that speaks to all of us, different in our upbringing and culture but linked with a similar heart and desire to love and be loved.