An explosive fusion results when Western contemporary dance meets traditions of the Far East. With their exceptional diversity, Guangdong, China’s only professional modern dance company, is creating a stir on the international dance scene. The young company recently seized Toronto audiences with their authoritative choreography.

Modern dance is a new creature in China. Guangdong’s founder Yang Meiqi was instrumental in the introduction of western contemporary technique to China in the late 1980s through a joint project with the American Dance Festival. What happens when western and traditional styles meet can be seen in 180 Degrees. Four female dancers skitter about frenetically, each confined to her square of white light. The synchronicity and sterile atmosphere are shattered when each dancer leaves the stage in turn to reappear with a fan, surely a staple symbol of Chinese culture.

Jijia Sang’s Sitting Still examines the overwhelming burden of conformity in China, where it has stirred up quite a ruckus. The work begins and ends with six dancers in quasi-traditional robes pacing in a line, heads bowed. The juice of the work comes when each dancer breaks out of the line to explore his or her own style.

Although the audience enjoyed these short works, Liang Xing’s I Want to Fly brought down the house. In a powerhouse blend of martial arts, gymnastics, dance and unparalleled agility, dancer HongJun Li performed feats of seemingly physical impossibility with a humble grace. Performed to Ennio Morricone’s regal music from the film The Mission, it teems with blissful yearning. It is a rare choreographic feat that makes the little hairs stand up on your arms, and it has earned no small token for its power—first prize at the eighth Paris International Dance Competition.

To demonstrate they are not sticklers for traditionalism, Guangdong presented the hysterical and wildly zany Linglei (literally meaning “other kinds”).

Linglei’s dancers sport fitted caps, sparkly fins and bloomers. These bird-alien-reptile-insect hybrids travel in packs and glare at the audience with a shameless impertinence. Cunning lights create a multicoloured mirage on the creatures’ reflective shells, while Yunna Long’s repetitious choreography captures the habitual nature of creatures of the wild.

Knowing the strict approach the Chinese take while training for gymnastics or martial arts, it is no surprise their mastery of dance borders on perfection.