Beijing LDTX Modern Dance Company

Tue., Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m., $29-$39, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St., 215-898-6701, www.pennpresents.org.

by Deni Kasrel

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Published: Oct 16, 2007

dance

Risk and danger abound when Beijing LDTX Dance Company presents The Cold Dagger. The full-length work is partially based on the ancient Chinese game of weigi (aka "go"), where two players vie for control of a grid-lined playing board. The stage set is fashioned to resemble go's grid, and the dancers, who portray warriors, are dressed in the same colors as the stones used to play the game: black and white. The go gambit is just a point of inspiration, however, as the company's dancers embark on a taut psychological production done to the sounds of American cellist David Darling. It's the first time this troupe has performed in Philadelphia, and Randy Swartz, artistic director of Dance Celebration, says we're in for something new: "Only a Chinese company could do this aesthetic," he says. "It's their culture. There's a certain Eastern starkness to it — the setting, the lighting, the way everybody moves. And yet they have learned contemporary Western dance movement, form and structure. But it's in a completely different context. It takes what we do here and puts it in a different pace and a different energy. ... It's a transportative experience."

Tue., Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m., $29-$39, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St., 215-898-6701, www.pennpresents.org.

 

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