A scene from modern dance Random Goodbyes. [Photo by Hu Yifan/For China Daily]

Chinese modern dance artist and celebrity talk show hostess Jin Xing appears sentimental discussing the European premiere of her spectacular show Random Goodbyes, staged in Brussels on Feb 7 and 8, just ahead of the Chinese New Year.

Jin Xing's Shanghai-based dance theater is celebrating its 25th anniversary, marking a significant milestone since its establishment in 1999.

"Actually, 25 years ago, when I established the modern dance company, I didn't think too much. I just thought maybe I find a group of dancers who love modern dance and are interested in dance with me, and that's it," she told China Daily in Brussels.

Everything would be just fine, she thought. But launching an independent and private dance company turned out to be no easy task.

"I couldn't register my company under my name because it had never happened before," she recalled.

China was changing fast then, and five years later the government authorities gave her the green light amid the country's reform and opening-up policies.

Jin described her company as a "perfect witness" of the change China has undergone across its economy and culture.

"Through 25 years, we have (had) tremendous changes. I am also very proud of that," she said.

She admits she had not expected then that she would be able to keep the private company for as long as 25 years, as it does not receive any government subsidies.

Besides revenues from the box office, Jin Xing has held several side jobs, including being a massively popular television talk show hostess in the past decade.

"People say that's my profession. No. That's my side job, part-time job," she said, adding that she has used the money earned on the television screen to fund her dance company.

Jin said she will never give up the theater for television, despite her increasing popularity on screen that may be partly due to her straightforward, sometimes controversial style.

She said she still wants to contribute to television because so many people love to listen to her talk, something she said she did not expect in the beginning.

The international version of the Jin Xing talk show will be unveiled in Singapore in April.

"I consider myself a stage person," she said, "Very simple, Jin Xing is just a dancer. I am a contemporary dancer."

Jin herself performed for the last time on stage in 2019 at the age of 52 and has since focused on her role as artistic director of her dance theater. She launched the Mars Theater Society, a drama company, in 2021 and set up the Jin Xing Dance Theater Paris in 2019.

She now splits her time between Shanghai and Paris.

Jin first joined the Shenyang military region dancing troupe in Northeast China, at the age of 11. She graduated from the People's Liberation Army Academy of Art Dancing Department in 1984. In 1988, she won a scholarship to study modern dance in the United States, spending four years in New York.

Random Goodbyes, staged at the Royal Flemish Theater in Brussels in front of packed audiences, is a collaboration with choreographers Moya Michael and David Hernandez, and was performed by Chinese and local European dancers.

Jin commissioned the two artists to choreograph a piece for her company in 2019, but unfortunately the project had to be stopped due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Random Goodbyes finally made its premiere in Shanghai in November.

Random Goodbyes seeks to reveal how, behind every face in the audience, hides a story, a collection of all their hellos and goodbyes, and the myths they become. What they do and what is done to them is random but still specific in all its intimate detail, each isolated in their desire for belonging.

This is the first time Jin's dance companies in Shanghai and Paris have worked together on a piece in Europe.

The shows in Brussels also included Echo, a shortened version of the larger original work that was also an introduction to a Jin Xing Dance Theater production piece, choreographed by Moya Michael in 2013.

The focal point of Echo is a group of women, occupying space. Each woman has an individual story that it intertwined with the group, yet each woman has her own voice.

Jin was excited to be back in Brussels, the place she lived in 1992, teaching modern dance at the Royal Conservatoire. She wanted to share the feeling with her young dancers.

"I enjoyed so much of this country because they have a very multilingual… Especially I like the mentality of Belgians, and for the contemporary art, they are very active, and that's what I like about it," said Jin.

She first brought her Shanghai-based dance company to Brussels in 2004, with her signature piece Shanghai Tango.

"After 20 years, I came back again… I like the city. The city is very dynamic," she said of Brussels.