Return To Many Forms

Shen Wei has been deploying his wistful choreography at Lincoln Center Summer Festivals for some time now — his work appeared there for three consecutive years, between 2003 and 2005. So his reappearance could mean that the curators are playing it safe. But Shen Wei Dance Arts, best known for Mr. Shen’s chilly, thrilling “Rite of Spring,” has jumped forms. With the opera “Second Visit to the Empress,” Mr. Shen returns to his roots in Chinese classical opera, a form that he left in the late ’80s to join the world of modern dance. His path doesn’t quite describe a full circle, since “Empress” attempts a fusion of the two genres. Instead, the occasionally spectacular work represents a loop on Shen Wei’s upward spiral, an exciting prologue for things to come.