Best bet

The Collection of American Modern Dance from Paul Taylor

Date: Nov 19-20 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 100 - 480 yuan

Paul Taylor, one of the most accomplished artists this nation has ever produced, continues to shape America's homegrown art of modern dance as he has since becoming a professional dancer and pioneering choreographer in 1954. Taylor first presented his choreography with five other dancers in Manhattan on May 30, 1954. That modest performance marked the beginning of a half-century of unrivaled creativity, and in the decades that followed, Mr Taylor became a cultural icon and one of history's most celebrated artists, hailed as part of the pantheon that created American modern dance.

Shen Wei Dance Arts Company Folding & Map

Date: Nov 12-13 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 80-580 yuan

Folding was commissioned by the Guangdong Modern Dance Company and Shen Wei recreated the work for his own company in 2002. The work conjures-up a dreamlike, even surreal, world that is at once ancient and timeless. Dancers glide onto the stage space and amass as if suddenly called to partake in an ancient ritual, familiar and yet unknown. A downstage pendulum, barely moving, marks the slow unraveling of time. The costumes (conical headdresses and long red and black robes), white makeup, and glowing white floor, heighten the dance's sense of mystery and ritual. The work's large backdrop, painted by Shen Wei, is after an 18th-century Chinese watercolor by Bada Shanren.

Drama Macbeth

Date: Nov 15 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 60-200 yuan

Featured by modernism, the drama Macbeth combines the elements of red and black, giving full expression to the cruel atmosphere, thus revealing the reflection on the dawn and doom of heroes. The spirit of modernism radiates throughout the drama Macbeth from adaptation to performance. The stage combines the elements of black and red, maximizes the brutal atmosphere, and witnesses the dawn and doom of heroes under the shock and thought.

Taiyuan Dance Troupe Dance Drama Thousand-hand Bodhisattva

Date: Nov 18-20 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 100-580 yuan

The dance drama Thousand-hand Bodhisattva is a recreation on the basis of the legend of Thousand-hand Bodhisattva widely circulated. It is a story with fable implications: Long long ago, a plague struck the State of Dai and even the King was not spared. Third Princess is prodigal of benefactions. She asks for permission to look for the magic lotus to save her father's life. Led by the Red Dragonfly, she has finally found the magic lotus thorough twists and turns and all kinds of trials. While in the face of the people suffering the abysses of misery, she resolutely offers the magic lotus instead.

Dance Drama Commission Evening Glow

Date: Nov 17 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 60-200 yuan

This dance drama is adapted from one of China's most popular romance folk tales Madame White Snake. The story takes place in the Southern Song Dynasty of China. Two snake sprites transform into human forms (Bai Suzhen, Xiao Qing) after thousands of years of cultivation and come to the world. Bai Suzhen meets a young man named Xu Xian at the West Lake in Hangzhou and the two fall in love at first sight and become husband and wife.

Michael Tilson Thomas, Yuja Wang & The San Francisco Symphony

Date: Nov 18 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 200-1,080 yuan

The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), established in 1911, is widely considered to be among the most artistically adventurous and innovative arts institutions in the U.S. It has grown in stature and acclaim under a succession of distinguished music directors, including American composer Henry Hadley, Alfred Hertz, Issay Dobrowen and current Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas. On November 18th, the San Francisco Symphony, together with the world-famous pianist Yuja Wang, presents a music feast with programs including Bright Sheng's Overture to Dream of the Red Chamber, Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Bruckner's Symphony No 7.