Sarah Holcman

When you think of Lithuania, you likely don’t think of hip hop dancing. Low Air Urban Dance Theater is changing that. Low Air is Lithuania’s first urban dance company, combining contemporary and street dance forms such as popping and locking and breakdancing, and challenging the notion of what “belongs on stage.” The founders and choreographers are Laurynas Žakevičius and Airida Gudaitė, artistic collaborators and real-life couple. Gudaitė is a professionally trained dancer with a background ranging from classical ballet to jazz, gaga, and hip-hop, making her the ultimate threat in a dance battle. Her partner Žakevičius worked in the juvenile system using urban dance with children in foster care.   ©Laura_Vanseviciene   In 2011 they debuted Feel-Link, a duet that seamlessly fuses the pulsing and body-breaking moves you might see in a New York dance club with the formality of the stage. The hypnotizing work, to be performed at Suzanne Dellal Centre on June 24, features an unexpected scenic element, two 770-liter trash dumpsters, literally from the street to the stage, and leaves you curious about the mixture of components. Of course this is the point for Laurynas and Airida. Street dance may be called street dance but in this global, internet-connected, culturally appropriated world, there are no rules. This is how and why hip-hop dancing has been embraced and absorbed in all the least likely of places, including Lithuania. June 24 at Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel Aviv

Jin Xing, the first openly transgender woman in China, also happens to be a brilliant choreographer   From boyhood as a dance star of the Chinese army, to adulthood as a pop-culture icon, Chinese socialite, and openly transgender woman, Jin Xing is something of a legend. Born male in 1967 and raised in traditional Chinese society, she was a boy with an unearthly talent for dance and the feeling that she was somehow different. Her childhood was spent enduring strict dance training as an entertainer in the People's Army where she was required to train as a soldier but preferred the stage to guns and grenades. It was when Jin went to New York in the early 90s on a dance scholarship that she was free to explore notions of sexuality and gender identity. At first she questioned whether she was homosexual, but in her heart she felt she should have been born a girl. She knew she was transgender and wanted to undergo gender reassignment surgery. While in the US she became a sought-after dancer, bringing pride and fame to her from her homeland of China. © PR       As a former high-ranking soldier and celebrity, she returned home to China and openly transitioned in a place where LGBTQ issues are barely acknowledged, let alone celebrated. After surgical complications she almost lost the ability to dance but overcame painful physical and cultural challenges with a resiliency that has propelled her to become one of China’s biggest stars, her television show viewed by an estimated 100