Dances with Songs.

The steady stream or, depending on your taste, monotony of Michael Smuin's choreography for "Dances with Songs" quickly acquires the character of a prepackaged exhibition of figure skating. Specifically, as seen in New York City, this twenty-six-part touring show looked like it was wrapping up a long and grueling circuit. No Ace bandages were evident, but a fair amount of unspontaneous and undaring dancing was.

On paper, Smuin's ballet enterprise possesses some cheek. The company title and its single-choreographer repertoire rib the world of Eliot Feld. Onstage, the proceedings have none of Feld's tart eccentricity. Instead, steering a middle-of-the-road course between ballet dancing and show dancing, Smuin makes reference to work from the disparate likes of Ben Stevenson, Twyla Tharp, Yuri Grigorovich, David Gordon, Mark Morris, Graciela Daniele, and Gerald Arpino.

A few of the company's generally lackluster dancers stood out, though only one, Nikolai Kabaniaev, did so without undue qualifiers. This Russian emigre had a lean and scrupulous look that stood in sharp contrast to the troupe's general tone, which is characterized by physiques wanting in trimness and tone and by dancing that lacks real power and finesse.

Pascale Leroy moved with a voluptuous flexion of limb, at least when she was supported by secondary means, such as a barre, a folding chair, or a partner. Julian Montaner, eagerly energized and physically deft, delicately individualized the sentimental journey his solo, Mon Dieu ("Dear God"), took through that classic of the French cinema, Children of Paradise.

Mostly, however, this glib sample of dancing was at its thinnest when the going got beyond gesture and posture and went for athletic jumps and pretty pirouettes. Rote work tempered by caution is no way to get at ballet's real razzle-dazzle.