Breathing heavily and sweating, 11 dancers move to the numbers they utter in low voices while walking fast from one direction to another. The air is humid and the noise they make between their foot and the ground is hard to ignore. They wrap up their 30-minute showcase by sliding down to the floor.

They are dancers of the TAO Dance Theater and what they performed was a preview of their latest contemporary dance piece, 11, which will be premiered at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Aug 24 with three shows running throughout Aug 26. Then, they will tour nationwide with the new dance piece.

"The first thing I want to mention is that there will be music for the dance work. However, the composer Xiao He hasn't finished it yet," says Tao Ye, choreographer and founder of the theater, right after the showcase. "But we are used to it. It's been a very long time that we work with the composer. He gets our ideas and will finish the music right on time."

Sporting a loose, black T-shirt and black harem pants, Tao, 36, talks in the center of the theater, which is located in Beijing's northeast suburbs. The dancers, who need a lot of space but cannot afford the high rents in the city, gather in a quiet village, called Hegezhuang. The two-story house, which serves as their training studio, is painted all black, except the dance floor, which is pure white.

Tao's latest choreographic piece, 11, will be his longest piece so far, which will be around one hour.