“The Next Wave” out of Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai brings a kinetic energy to Nike that’s stunningly choreographed to get you motivated.

What starts with a boy dribbling a ball down a school hallway takes off into a full fledged athletic cornucopia of Shanghai’s finest tennis players, motocross riders, track stars, parkour athletes, and basketball players – all caught in a single take. Fans of Shanghai sports and culture will recognize familiar faces like singer Selina, runner Mr Sun, and hurdler Liu Xian.

The ad builds momentum through its picture perfect use of just a single shot – or so it would have you believe. The movie magic used to craft “The Next Wave” required a lot of collaboration between creatives, production, and Lost Planet’s editorial team led by Federico Brusilosky. The crew traveled to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to ensure that the process ran seamlessly. The choreography had to be carefully timed to fit the overall edit and allow the single-take effect to work. Any slight error in movement would require the team to revert to time warping, which would defeat the whole purpose of this visionary concept. It was essential to have an organic feel to all of the captured footage.

“What I really liked about the project was that we tried to rely on CG as little as possible, and create momentum through performance and choreography,” Brusilovsky continues. “Where most projects would rely on CG, this one was shot practical, and I think that feeling translates into the final product.”

According to Creativity Editor Ann Diaz the spot “targets a young generation unencumbered by their country’s traditions, one more emboldened to be spontaneous and irreverent in pursuing their own paths.” Watch “The Next Wave” above.