'Play,' a tumble of fun; 'Traces,' acrobatics plus

Play. When dance legend Pina Bausch suggested that Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Shantala Shivalingappa work together, she uncapped a fount of joy for the artists and their audiences. These two virtuosos - he in the kind of contemporary dance that fluidly traverses the space between air and floor, and she a stellar exemplar of Indian Kuchipudi dance - delightedly push each other and their musician counterparts into passages of extreme beauty, speed, and refinement.

Unfolding on a set of mobile platforms with a grid of moving panels for a backdrop, Play is a digest of game structures and cultural exchanges. While trying on each other's forms, Shivalingappa gamely tumbles to the floor, rocking seesaw-like on her knees, and Cherkaoui does a creditable job of echoing her complex stamping rhythms and elegant hand mudras. The terrific musicians bring in strains of medieval plainsong, flamenco, and taiko drumming, and frequently all the performers join one another in singing.

Most exquisite were Cherkaoui's marionette-master manipulations of Shivalingappa's head and hands, and the way this scene and many of Play's other images recur at the end in a dense, layered flashback.

The one missing collaborator was a dramaturg; Play's episodic quality undercuts the power of its materials and performers. Still, it's a "do not miss."

The artists will also take part in Saturday's free symposium, "Conversations on Cross Cultural Identity in 21st Century Performance."

- Lisa Kraus

$25-$30. 8 p.m. 9/17. Prince Music Theatre, 1412 Chestnut St. Free symposium at the Prince, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 9/17.

 Traces. Taking a few days out of their New York run for four appearances here in the Live Arts Festival, a group called 7 Fingers from Montreal is being touted as both dance and circus, a new kind of show incorporating acrobatics, skateboarding and parkour, plus singing (lame), patter (lamer), and video projections (lamest). Supposedly an urban "no fear no net" event, it feels more like a playground than a street corner.

Six men and one woman leap, tumble, somersault, and create a kind of apache gymnastics in a romantic scene. They climb poles with amazing agility, hurl themselves through hoops, and, surprisingly, they can all play the piano.

If you've seen Cirque du Soleil, you've seen performances far more astonishing and skillful; if you've seen Tap Dogs or Stomp, you've seen far wittier, wilder testosterone.

But to be fair: Although I and my companion for the evening found it boring, the huge audience at the Merriam roared its approval.

- Toby Zinman

$15-$55. 2 & 8 p.m. 9/17, 2 p.m. 9/18. Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St.