Eugene Ballet Company, Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, Eugene, Oregon, April 11-12, 1997.

In the twentieth century, ballets with overt political content more often than not have been destined for failure; Kurt Jooss's The Green Table (1932) is a notable exception.

Still Folls the Rain, however, artistic director Toni Pimble's powerful commentary on the horrors of fundamentalist religion, delivers its message with an aesthetic subtlety that is far more effective than the graphic representations of bloody violence we see daily on the evening news or in movie theaters.

Accompanied by a score with spiritual overtones by contemporary American composer Patricia Van Ness, Rain is based on an incident that took place in Afghanistan when a man was stoned to death for committing adultery.

The curtain rises on a familiar scene: Muslims facing Mecca, bodies curled in prayer, in a mosque courtyard created with lights by Lloyd Sobel, whose collaborations with Pimble over the years have produced such visually compelling works as Columba Aspexit and Common Ground.

As the ten dancers rise from their crouched positions -- the men separated from the women, the women rising slowly on pointe -- the choreography for the arms tells the story along with the music, which builds from a prayerful tone to one that is decidedly menacing. Moreover, with movement that suggests crucifixion, Pimble shows her awareness of the threat American society is now under from the Religious Right.

Pimble has for years been experimenting with mixtures of modern and classical technique and in this work the exploration of those seemingly antithetical combinations pays off: earthbound contractions, weighted movement, and balletic port de bras that accelerate to simulate the stoning work to great effect.

New company member James Strong and company stalwart Jennifer Martin, as the tragic couple, were completely in tune with one another, the movement, and the music. The ensemble was equally adept.

Live music accompanied the first all-Pimble show this director has produced. New works provided considerable variety of tone, subject matter, and style.

Channel Surfer, to a pounding score by Michael Torke, is a witty take on the American male's obsession with ports and has movement suggestive of eighteen different athletic activities. Wild Indigo, danced to composer in residence Erik Lundborg's Adagio, is a lyrical, gentle tribute to women dancers, especially former company member Nian Mei Geng.

Rhapsody in Blue closed the show. While it is a cheerful, witty take on the Gershwin score as well as American movie musicals, it shows nothing like the craftsmanship of Rain, which is easily the best work Pimble has done. Eugene pianist Victor Steinhardt, who has accompanied Pimble's work in the past, gave a lively rendition of the jazzy score, along with the musicians of the Oregon Festival of American Music, led by Oregon Ballet Theatre music director Niel DePonte. This is an exceptionally musical company of dancers, and they were considerably energized by both Pimble's choreography and the rare opportunity to perform to live music.