A study of dance and gesture in modern China: Each gesture provides a microcosm for larger themes of present-day Beijing. 

In part 1, Public Square Dancers provide a meditation on dance as protest to modern contexts by pitting the dignified faces of the dancers against gathered sounds of construction sites, malls, and tea making to provide a new “rhythm” for this ancient dance culture. 

Next, 5-year old Renee embarks on her study of ballet. As she acquires this dance tradition, the raw gestures of everydayness reappear in new forms, either between refined ballet moves, or as “amendments” to these moves. Can Renee absorb a tradition alongside her individualism? 

Part 3 has 22-year-old Wenny studying traditional Xinjiang dance. A multifold dialogue about the inheritance of tradition and grace occurs through the movements themselves, a teacher refining those movements, and Wenny’s “modern” movements inherited through her context (hailing a cab, for example).