Choreographer Tere O'Connor flails his arms and gyrates an invisible Hula-Hoop, struggling to convey the idea of improvisation to members of the Beijing Modern Dance Co.

The dancers, already grappling with the language barrier, simply mimic his moves -- not the point, as he tells them in the new documentary 'Taste of Body.'

It is one of several cultural collisions between the American choreographer and the dancers he worked with in 2008, which Wang Fan captured in her directorial debut. 'Taste of Body' premiered at the recent Beijing International Film Festival and moves on to the Festival du Cinema Chinois de Paris in September and the China Image Film Festival in London in October.

The film is a rare moment in the spotlight for modern dance in China. The art form is relatively new in the country and has long been upstaged by such genres as theater and music. With recent upticks in corporate sponsorship and media coverage, it has built up an audience that can sustain professional troupes such as the Guangdong Modern Dance Company and Beijing-based TAO Dance Theater.

Ms. Wang, 36 years old, grew up in Xi'an, located in central China, where she trained in traditional Chinese dance from age seven. Visiting New York in 2006, she was inspired by Mr. O'Connor's 'Baby' -- described by one reviewer as 'a theatrical representation of distraction' -- and decided to document his process.

'Audiences of dance need to motivate their deep life experiences and thinking to touch the soul of a piece,' Ms. Wang said. 'Audiences of film like to see a story first. As a filmmaker, I want to tell a story before I express myself. As a filmmaker who shoots dance, I want to find the way to put them together.'

Ms. Wang, whose English name is Michelle, met Mr. O'Connor along with producer Allan Miller, winner of the 1979 best-feature-length documentary Academy Award for 'From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China.' 'We spoke for all of 15 minutes when Tere told Allan, 'Michelle has refreshed me,'' Ms. Wang said.

She shared production costs with Mr. Miller, who she met when he lectured at her alma mater, the Beijing Film Academy.

Over the course of the 52-minute film, in chats that alternate between English and Mandarin, Mr. O'Connor and the troupe members collaborate and exchange ideas, though not always easily. In giving equal screen time to the dance company's director, Gaoyan Jinzi, and Mr. O'Connor, 'Taste of Body' displays clashes between the American and Chinese creative processes, but also offers hope that art could unite them.

According to Alison Friedman, the film's interpreter, it was challenging to translate Mr. O'Connor's insistence that he doesn't always know what he wants in a piece until the work begins.

'This is polar opposite to the way most Chinese choreographers work, even in contemporary dance,' she said. 'Many feel they can't command the respect of their dancers unless they say, 'This is exactly what I want you to give me,' right from the beginning.'

Dancers were also startled when the choreographer revealed that he was gay during one rehearsal. 'That was shocking for the dancers,' Ms. Friedman said. 'So few, at the time in China, were talking about their sexuality. It made everybody a bit more standoffish at first, at least until they got moving again.'

Ms. Wang has been working on 'Taste of Body' since 2008, gaining experience on the sets of the 2007 co-production 'Mongol,' about the young Genghis Khan, and by assisting director Bruce Beresford on 2009's 'Mao's Last Dancer,' about defecting ballet dancer Li Cunxin.

'Taste of Body' will be lucky if it gets released in China, where there is little theatrical track record for documentaries. There is hope for overseas sales, as a Sino-U.S. co-production and China's first modern dance documentary.

'Lots of Chinese directors are struggling to make documentaries, telling real stories about real Chinese people in the real contemporary China, stories they believe people will believe and love to hear,' China Film Promotion International President Zhou Tiedong, the distributor of 'Taste of Body,' said in an email. 'Those people should be represented and encouraged.'

Jonathan Landreth