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Published: Feb 3, 2009

Dancer/choreographer Kun-Yang Lin set up shop in South Philadelphia this past spring, and finally we get a full-length show of the exquisite dance he's been preparing. Lin's style presents an adroit blend of influences from his native Taiwan, including traditional Chinese dance, martial arts and calligraphy, as well as elements of contemporary American dance. There's a distinct mind/body feel to his pieces; his new work, AUM, is inspired by the sacred Hindu syllable best known in the West as a mantra for meditation. It's one of several selections on a program where even delicate moments hold sublime, roiling energy.

—Deni Kasrel

Fri.-Sat., Feb. 6-7, 8 p.m., $25, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, kunyanglin.org.

Slought Foundation's gallery often seems to reflect upon itself, its performance space echoed in the video screens of other performances, the text on its walls writing itself into an intellectual locality. Which makes it the perfect site for a look at the work of conceptual artist and media theorist Peter Weibel. Focusing on early works (1964-1975), Slought's exhibit (the first in America) promises to observe Weibel's work as it folds in upon itself, dissecting as it goes, transferring concepts from page to screen to theory before whirling around and deconstructing the self-same media in a heady mix of performance and criticism.

—Shaun Brady

Through March 11, free, Slought Foundation, 4017 Walnut St., 215-701-4627, slought.org.

Hip-hop has been edging into theater for years, but more for laughs (read: The Bomb-itty of Errors) than for drama — until Will Power's The Seven, an award-winning off-Broadway hit that updates Aeschylus' 2,500-year-old tragedy Seven Against Thebes. The Seven's Philly première at Temple is all about the Oedipal curse — you know, that "the sins of the fathers are visited upon their sons" — and directed by nationally prominent Lee Kenneth Richardson. With pop harmonies, rap, rhythm, slam poetry and hip-hop choreography, Power tells the story of brother warring against brother on Philadelphia's mean streets.

—Mark Cofta

Through Feb. 22, $20, Tomlinson Theater, Temple University, 1301 W. Norris St., 215-204-1122, www.temple.edu/sct/theater.

Making the ordinary extraordinary is a trademark of Jorge and Niki Cousineau's company, Subcircle, a performance collaboration where Jorge's film and video works vacillate between concrete and abstract while Niki's dance interacts with those visuals in beguiling ways. Subcircle's one-night Annenberg appearance offers a double-shot of their curious creations, with two companion works that explore notions of time, space and, as Niki puts it, "finding the unseen moments and thoughts in our everyday actions that happen beneath the surface." Hold tight folks, this one's a trip into another dimension.

—Deni Kasrel

Fri., Feb. 6, 8 p.m., $25, Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut St., 215-898-3900, pennpresents.org.

Landscape photography no longer means quaint fishing villages on bucolic bays. The more common scene in today's world is refineries and smokestacks stretching across iridescent water, and Tetsugo Hyakutake shows this in his panoramic series of industrial sites in Japan. "Pathos and Irony" is presented at Gallery 339 alongside works by Philadelphia photographer Daniel Lobdell, whose "Spanning Structures" depicts encroaching modernity on the urban horizon through triptychs of highway overpasses.

—John Vettese

Through March 14, Gallery 339, 339 S. 21st St., 215-731-1530, gallery339.com.

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