Jue (Aware), a duet by Gaoyan Jinzi (of the Beijing Modern Dance Company) and her mother, Luo Lili, stood out as the keynote dance concert. In this work, the two women danced the agon between old and new on the most intimate, familial level. Rather than breaking the umbilical cord, again and again Jinzi made her way back to Lili, who remained constant in her aloof, smiling perfection. Lili is the traditional Chinese female dancer--coquettish, beautiful, on a pedestal. Her daughter winced, crouched, and crawled, fetuslike, at her feet. Her movement--sometimes staccato, sometimes serpentine and acrobatic--was always raw, bared, and modern, in a European sense, churning an energy that showed her fury and sadness. At one point she mirrored her mother's movement, begging the question of fitting into Mama's mold. Impossible! The six sections in this sixty-minute work are choreographic gems performed with fervor and perfection underscored by the real-life relationship.

BY Brenda Dixon Gottschild

DANCE MAGAZINE Senior Advising Editor