So many shows! The sleek Shanghai International Dance Center is just inundating us with contemporary dance shows. Mongolian dance, Chinese dance, Korean dance, Hungarian winners of Britain's Got Talent... too many shows, in fact, for individual wires. They'd bury all of our super important news about trash, cosplay and Pac-Man. So, dance fans, this one is all yours. You're welcome.

*** Blue Trace is a contemporary Mongolian dance drama created by Xi Siriguleng in 2014. Debuting in 2016 and performed by an all-male dance troupe, it follows a young man escaping the loneliness of the city to his hometown in the the Mongolian grasslands. The audio accompaniment features vocal Hrizha from Mongolian folk band Hanggai. Hungarian shadow theatre group Attraction performed at the London 2012 Olympics, and they also won Britain's Got Talent in 2013, actually wringing a tear from two of the judges. It wasn't Simon Cowell. Powerful stuff. This show sees them perform their production of a new piece entitled "Let Love Win." Led by their founder Fouad Boussouf, the Massala Dance Company, from Morocco, perform a 60-minute original ensemble piece that explores and interprets the cross-cultural influences of North African dance and contemporary hip hop. Chinese contemporary dance in two parts. The first half, a fifteen minute performance by choreographer Zhaxi Wangjia, is called "From 3200 to 0," is about the trip from the Tibetan plateau to sea level, reflecting how life has changed and language has been depleted. The second half, "32 Chapters," choreographer by Wen Xiaochao, explores how life is like a book: it's about beauty, being broken, being lonely, how there is so much contained in 32 years. Beijing Dance Academy Choreography Department graduate Li Chao's interpretive dance performance at the Shanghai International Dance Center looks at the Chinese word "hao", which can be used to greet an acquaintance, or to amplify a distance between people, through the body-language of taichi and swing. This combination of dance, theatre and multimedia projection tells a story of Liu Xiaoliang, a female anchor who, along with her team, face the highs and lows of live broadcasting that leads them on a journey to understand the rules of the game and search for their identity. VOID explores the essence of traditional Korean dance through a modern lens, presented in two parts by Jin Haiying, a Korean dance artist born and raised in China. Act I is inspired by the "Sha’erpuli Dance," which means something like "bad luck dispelling dance." The unusual dance uses typical Korean style movements, as Jin reconstructs its form and puts it on stage with her own life experience. Act II is explores the relationship between "void" and "solid" as it impacts reality. * More shows available on the "events" tab at the Shanghai International Dance Center venue listing.