Personal & collective power

Choreographer Mathew Janczewski sets his latest piece to the penetrating sounds of Berlin-based composer Nils Frahm, who performed at the Cedar last year, for Arena Dances' upcoming performance. Frahm draws on his roots as a classical pianist to create multi-instrumental music that juxtaposes classical and electronic sounds with an overarching sense of resonance and reverberation. An evening-length work, "One Room" features a cast of six women who collaborated with Janczewski in its creation. The piece explores the question of power and how individuals and society at large seek ways forward, even as conflict and division stir up all around us. (7:30 p.m. Thu., Fri., Sat., Tek Box, 528 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls., $24, citypagestix.com/organizations/mathew-janczewski-s-arena-dances.)

Gravity-defying hip-hop

Get ready for flying somersaults, vaulting dives and the intersection between strength and intimacy. When Grupo de Rua was getting its start in the mid-1990s, the Brazilian dance troupe was firmly rooted in the hip-hop scene, performing in competitions and festivals. Over time, the group's style moved more into the contemporary dance realm. Choreographer Bruno Beltrão has reinvented street dance forms to create a kind of movement that features showstopping agility with layers of softness and subtlety. The company's new piece, "Inoah," named after a city in Brazil near Rio de Janeiro, addresses themes of isolation and migration, all with a mesmerizing disregard for gravity. (8 p.m. Fri. & Sat., Walker Art Center, 725 Vineland Place, Mpls., $28, 612-375-7600, walkerart.org.)

Living messengers and death guides

The past meets the present with intercultural, genre-bending themes and variations in "Let the Crows Come," a culmination of Ashwini Ramaswamy's two-year residency with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music series. The core performance features a solo by Ramaswamy that's grounded in the Bharatanatyam dance tradition and set to the Carnatic music of composer Prema Ramamurthy. From there, local dancers/choreographers Alanna Morris-Van Tassel and Berit Ahlgren team up with cellist and composer Brent Arnold, who fuses electronic and classical music, and interdisciplinary artist Jace Clayton, also known as DJ /rupture. The result will be an exchange of imagery, movement, sound and rhythm stemming from a set of ancient texts about crows traversing through time, space, life and death. (8 p.m. Fri. & Sat., the Lab Theater, 700 N. 1st St, Mpls., $25, 651-291-1144, liquidmusicseries.org.)

SHEILA REGAN