Dynamic and Genre-Defying, ‘Lady White Snake’ Gives a Classic Myth a Contemporary Bite
“We call snake years ‘mini dragon’ years,” Tan YuanYuan, former principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, tells Observer. “Snakes are real, unlike dragons, but they’re still powerful creatures.”
According to the Chinese zodiac, 2025 is the Year of the Wood Snake. In Chinese culture and mythology, snakes are associated with transformation (shed that skin!), growth and renewal. We are now halfway through the year, and what better way to pause and celebrate these formidable serpents than to experience the international premiere of Shanghai Grand Theatre’s dance drama Lady White Snake, with artistic direction by Tan, which lands at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center this weekend.
Lady White Snake reimagines the thousand-year-old Legend of the White Snake, one of China’s Four Great Folktales, through a contemporary and feminist lens. The traditional tale is somewhat like the original The Little Mermaid, in that a beautiful supernatural creature becomes a woman to be with the mortal man she loves, but a villain intervenes and tragedy ensues. Themes of love, loyalty and betrayal run through the legend, which has been the inspiration of many great operas, movies and plays. Lady White Snake is the first major dance production to tackle it.
The story of Lady White Snake, written by Luo Zhou, differs from the original in several ways. First, it is set in the present day, with occasional dips into a surreal, ancient dreamscape. The characters are altered a bit, too. The White Snake is now “the Wife” and is already married to “the Husband” (Xu Xian). The Green Snake, who is usually the White Snake’s sister, is now Xiao Qing—the Wife’s alternate, younger self. And Fa Hai, who is usually the nefarious monk, is now a psychologist bent on “curing” the Wife. But perhaps most importantly, in this new version, the Wife/Lady White is interested in more than her eternal love for her husband. In this version, she chooses to save herself.
The production has been a long time in the making. Tan was first approached by Shanghai Grand Theatre to lead the project in 2018, with plans to begin in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production was put on hold and wasn’t picked up again until 2022. It had its well-received world premiere at the Shanghai Grand Theatre in November 2022, with Tan participating as both the artistic director and dancing the role of the Wife.
The creative team then made revisions to the production, including bringing on a new choreographer (Wang Peixian, who has worked with world-renowned companies such as Martha Graham Dance Company, Nederlands Dans Theater and Tao Dance Theater), and presented this updated version, which Tan called “Lady White Snake 2.0,” in February 2025. It is this version—with just a few more minor revisions—that will have its international premiere in New York on July 26.
“Of course, nothing can be perfect,” Tan explains. “But as artists, we always want to be better. That’s the beauty of a performance on stage—you can always change it. We can keep shaping it. Carving it, just like a sculpture. Or like an oil painting, you can always add something on top.”
The freshly carved production coming to Lincoln Center, directed by Zhou Ke, is impressive, with set design by Gao Guangjian, an original recorded score by Xu Zhong featuring a full orchestra and traditional Chinese instruments, lighting design by Xiao Lihe, video design by Feng Jiangzhou and costumes by designer Zhang Viola.
The two casts of four leads—hailing from Suzhou Ballet Theatre, Cincinnati Ballet, Shanghai Ballet and Béjart Ballet Lausanne—and twenty-nine dancers from the Shanghai Opera House Dance Ensemble perform a fusion of Eastern and Western dance languages: ballet, Chinese folk dance, Chinese contemporary dance, classical Chinese dance and Kung Fu. “It’s kind of martial-artsy,” Tan says. She added that the dancers have enjoyed working together and learning from each other. “The modern dancers take ballet classes, and the ballet dancers ask, ‘How do you do this roll on the floor?’” She laughs. “Because we never usually go on the floor.”
Tan is excited to bring Lady White Snake to new audiences, especially those without a deep cultural knowledge of the original legend. She recommends reading the script in the program before watching, but even those who don’t dive into the storyline will still be fascinated by the dance. The unique blend of movement is something most New Yorkers will likely have never seen and may never see again.
“It’s been my privilege to work on this program since the beginning as both a dancer and artistic director,” Tan finishes. “I’m proud to bring this show to the United States and share this Chinese fairytale and our beautiful dancers with an international audience.”
Lady White Snake comes to the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for three performances on July 26 at 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and July 27 at 1:30 p.m.
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