Dancers from the Beijing Dance Academy and the Art Vocational College at the Lanzhou University of Arts and Science in Gansu province perform works based on Dunhuang's ancient murals at the Chinese Traditional Culture Museum in Beijing on Aug 21. [Photo by Zou Hong for China Daily]

Gao expresses her gratitude to Chang Shana's father, Chang Shuhong (1904-94).Chang Shuhong was the founding director of the Dunhuang Academy, and committed his life to the protection and conservation of the caves.

"Chang Shuhong gave me 102 sketches of Dunhuang dance by Wu Manying of the Chinese National Academy of Arts. The line drawings were key to my artistic inspiration when it came to creating the Dunhuang dance teaching system," says Gao, who compiled the Dunhuang Dance Teaching Outline and taught the first group of students in the genre at the Gansu Arts School in 1980.

In 2011, the Gansu Arts School was integrated with the Lanzhou University of Arts and Sciences, which established a Dunhuang Dance Heritage and Development Research Center to further develop and promote the genre as a distinctive feature of its artistic education.

For Chang Shana, Dunhuang occupies a special place.

"Dunhuang is my hometown. Father often said, 'Shana, don't forget you are from Dunhuang'," says Chang Shana.

"These murals are not just artistic masterpieces but also serve as windows into the spiritual and cultural life of the ancient China. Each figure and movement they capture tells a story of ritual and reverence, and creates a vibrant historical tableau," she says.

"By reinterpreting Dunhuang's visual and spiritual elements through dance, Gao and the dancers bridge the gap between past and present, creating a new understanding of ancient traditions."