Strategically placed along the Dance Road, Honolulu often hosts companies en route to and from another continent. Such was the case with the recent performance of New Zealand's Black Grace Dance Company, returning home after a tour of the Mainland and Mexico.

Honolulu's dance cognoscenti, having barely recovered from that superb event, are in for another revelation this weekend when the Beijing Modern Dance Company stops at the Hawai'i Theatre, homeward bound from a recent U.S. Mainland tour.

The group, directed by Willy Tsao, has won accolades for its performances around the world and was given the 1996 National Dance Award (Wen Hua) from the Chinese government and the Grand Prix in the International Modern Choreography Competition in 1999.

A native of Hong Kong, Tsao attended college in the United States, where he first discovered modern dance. The business administration major (his parents had wanted him to join the family textile business) also studied the styles of various dance pioneers. Upon returning to Hong Kong, he formed the City Contemporary Dance Company in 1979.

Tsao must be the busiest man in China. In addition to leading the Hong Kong troupe and the Beijing troupe, he is also the artistic director of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company in Guangzhou, created in 1992.

The Beijing Dance Academy offered its first-ever modern dance class in 1992. By 1995, the students were advanced enough to form a company. When the original artistic director left in 1999, Tsao, recognized for the success he had in Guangzhou, was called in to take over. Today he continues to lead all three companies, commuting regularly among them.

What makes this triple threat possible is a strong support system. In each company, Tsao has an associate director who leads the organization on a day-by-day basis. In Beijing, that person is Li Han-Zhong, also a major choreographer for the group. Audiences here will be seeing one of his best-known pieces, "All River Red," set to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring."

Also on the program will be Tsao's "Wandering in the Realm of Lightness," originally created for the Hong Kong company in 1989 to a commissioned score by Wong Sun Keung. The dance, based on Taoist philosophy, "is very tranquil and serene in nature, although there are some faster sections.

But in general, it's very calm, with a tai-chi feeling and an inner flow of energy," Tsao said in a recent phone interview from his hotel in Atlanta.

Building an audience for modern dance in China has not been easy. Because of the public's aesthetic, it has taken time for viewers to accept certain movements.

Tsao elaborates: "Anything that rolls on the floor was considered ugly, but now it's becoming more and more common to see it in newer ballets."

Although Tsao denies the company has a particular movement style, he adds that "Li Han-Zhong's 'All River Red' is angular, with a very frantic energy and a kind of dynamic sharpness."

His own work displays the dancers' versatility and range of movement, giving evidence of their training in ballet as well as acrobatics through the clarity of line, superb balance, strength and control.

Slow-motion passages alternate with swift, complex jumps, lifts and falls, with the dancers extending each movement to its limit, then melting into the next phrase like uncontained quicksilver.