Alaska Dance Theatre presented an evening of original works Saturday at the Alice Bassler Sullivan Theater. "On the Verge" featured dances created by some of the company's instructors and local guests in an hour-long display of their talents. It was a surprisingly good concert for a showcase performance that threw in all sorts of little works. This was due in part because the program was anchored by experienced choreographers. A crew of talented performers elevated the evening above some of the more average-looking works presented.
Many pieces were more like ideas than full-blown explorations of themes and movements. But even in what might be considered condensed versions, several dances stood out. "When in Winter...," by Momentum Dance Collective's Beth Daly, was a lovely dance for four icy elves. They leaped, swirled and laughed at each other to the wonderful sounds of Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal."
Guest Michelle Steffens' duet for herself and Ellie Minor was a short work of tap and body percussion. Tough-sounding, rhythmic and full of improvisations for tapper Steffins, "In2ne" was a glimpse at what could become, in a longer dance, a funky adventure of sound and rhythm.
ADT instructor Melissa Jabaay's solo "Playtime with Elizabeth," stood out not so much for its choreography as for the clarity of the performance. Jabaay moved with a precision that attended to each gesture and step. Nothing was slurred or thrown away. Her daughter stood in the darkened audience and had to be held back by her dad, so enraptured was she by her mother's movements.
Veteran choreographers Leslie K. Ward and Walter Barrilas went crazy in their solos. Ward's "On the Rocks" (presented at the University of Alaska Anchorage Dance Ensemble showcase last month) was an off-kilter look at a woman more than half-way to drunk and still looking for love in all the wrong places. She filled the dance with graceful movements that alternated with loopy gestures that seemed flirty in a weird sort of way.
Barillas was equally as squirrely in his improvised "Coming Formlessness." Between leaping in spirals and rolling on the floor, Barillas rubbed cards the audience had filled in by finishing the phrase "I am..." all over his face and torso. Silly, short, funny, loved, spunky; these were words that conjured up all sorts of movements and attitudes that Barillas could have explored, even briefly, but didn't. But, as with Ward's solo, it was nice to watch him do some crazy things with his body, even if it didn't make any sense.
ADT instructor/dancer Niki Maple's "Three Ballads," highlighted ADT dancers and teachers in a ballet set to some odd music. Three principals, Maple, Heather McEwen and Sarah Grunwaldt, handled the movements with ease and grace, and a sensuality that one doesn't often see in classical ballet. However, the pairing of this dance style with hard-driving music, including the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" was a poor choice. It created a dissonance that weakened the dancing and whatever meaning the choreography may have had.
"On The Verge" was an apt title for this performance. These young people stretched their creative minds in dances that had potential. The concert was a starting point for many of them, with the ending still to come.
Anne Herman holds a master's degree in dance and has been a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts.
By ANNE HERMAN
Daily News correspondent