Stravinsky caught in rush hour

If you had a pound for every choreographer who'd created a version of Rite of Spring, you wouldn't be rich, but you would have a bob or two to spare.

Few can resist Stravinsky's terrifying music, while Nijinsky's notorious choreography is like a talisman to all would-be mould breakers.

Highly rated in his adopted city of New York, the Chinese-born Shen Wei made his London debut last night with a double bill that included a Rite of Spring.

He describes his version as focusing on the music rather than the story, and this is true, in that there's no trace of narrative in his choreography, which is all spirals and suspensions and falls, with stylised walking and running and occasional hints of hip-hop.

However, there is a strong urban mood to the piece, with the 11 dancers dressed in drab city grey and moving with a speed and anonymity you see at King's Cross in rush hour. Their blank, powdered faces have an air-conditioned pallor, and their body language conveys high-rise gloom.

Even Stravinsky's music, here a piano reduction, has an almost Tarmac'd tinge. Shen Wei doesn't say his Rite depicts our sacrifice to Mammon, but it surely seems like one.

After Rite, Folding has an almost rural feel, albeit a visually striking one. The light is soft and the pace is slow, which is either mesmerising or mind-numbing, depending on your point of view.

The movement evokes Christian and Oriental rituals, as does John Taverner's music, with the dancers wearing what look like ceremonial robes - full skirts in vivid red and inky black that swish and sway as they move. Their faces are white and expressionless, and the shape of their heads are distorted by conical headdresses.

Shen Wei says he was inspired by the act of folding paper, but folding limbs around each other might be a better description. The piece is unequivocally sensual, and then it suddenly shifts mood. With the help of clever lighting, the redskirted dancers seem to float above the stage, while a figure in black patrols the scene. The suggestion of sex and death is unmistakable.

Tonight only. Information: 0870 737 7737. This is a Dance Umbrella event: www.danceumbrella.co.uk

Shen Wei Dance Arts: Double Bill (Rite Of Spring/Folding)