Solo artists stood out starkly on the dark and quiet stage as the spotlight fell on them.
The performance, called Oath-Midnight Rain, was by the world famous Beijing Modern Dance Company, which took place at Temi Zammit Hall in Tal-Qroqq on Saturday night.
Choreographed by one of the company’s founders and artistic director Gao Yanjinzi, Midnight Rain illustrates her understanding of rebirth, casting a human’s soul to be reborn in the forms of five objects from traditional Chinese art.
Ms Gao integrates traditional culture and contemporary aesthetics in the dance production to illustrate the cycle of Buddhist rebirth.
In the opening and the closing scenes, a red cloth links the dancers, who individually represent the same soul as a flower, grass, a fish, a bird and an insect.
The company performs regularly throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North and South America, and at festivals such as the Berlin Art Festival and La Bienniale di Venezia.
It was in Malta following an invitation by the China Cultural Centre.
Over the past few years, the company has been at the forefront of the developing arts in China, attempting to show the rest of the world the face of modern China.