Live Arts/Fringe shows its range

Stitch. You don't need a huge tent and a zillion-dollar production for a wow! moment. Proof is at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts in Germantown, where two impossibly graceful athletes offer 45 minutes of striking circus work - elaborate dancing in midair, dangerous balancing, unreal body-bending, aerial fabric work, and just about anything on stilts.

Laura Stokes is like an otherworldly insect in her ceiling-level contortions with fabric. On the floor, she stands on one foot and rests her chin on the toes of the other. Cohdi Harrell's contortions on a trapeze put him in unlikely, dazzling poses. On the ground, he contorts while twirling a hoop seamlessly. There's as much expression in the performers' bare feet as on their faces. The two work together to beautiful effect, limbs and bodies askew like a flower in bloom.

The two call their act Ricochet. On a postcard ad, mumbo jumbo describes an "exploitation" of connection, potential and blah-blah-blah. But in the end, Stitch is an elegant prayer of thanks for the human body.    - Howard Shapiro

Factor T. The Gdansk dance company Dada von Bzdülöw presents its second Live Arts Festival show inspired by a Polish writer. Last year it was Witold Gombrowicz; this year, the dancers make witty observations on another prankster author little-known here - Stefan Themerson, who first published the pataphysical works of Alfred Jarry in English under a press with a Latinized name for the Jabberwock. It helps to hear jabberwocky and Jarry clanging in your head to see where this show is going.

The wickedly playful intent of the piece kicked in with laborious lifts, and with company founder and dancer extraordinaire Leszek Bzdyl smiling. For the last year, Philly dancer Bethany Formica worked with the group for her role as a jaded ingenue in multiple, gorgeous costume changes. (Hiroshi Iwasaki designed the 1930s period costumes and Mikolaj Traska the jazzy music.) Katarzyna Chmielewska, also a founding Dada member, danced with reckless elegance in her schoolmarm-prim garb.