Ghettoriginal Productions Dance Company.

Stage. left, the deejay Joseph "Jab" Abajian starts spinning some hip-hop tunes; sliding his hand across the records to make slilthery sounds. Lights bounce off a sparkling blue-and-red graffiti backdrop. Master of ceremonies Q-Unique walks on, rapping a short history of hip-hop, the twenty-year-old urban cultural phenomenon that combines dance, music, graffiti, and rap. Slinky Adesola D'Incredible" Osakalumi glides to center stage and begins to pound an imaginary drum.

Eight handsome, strutting, skipping dancers in baggy pants, vests and T-shirts blast forward. Gabriel "Kwikstep" Dionisio dives into a head spin; Steve "Mr. Wiggles" Clemente lopes sideways; and three women--Anita "Rock-a-fella" Garcia, Masami Kanemoto, and Ereina "Honey Rockwell" Valencia--fly into cartwheels. Concrete Jungle (1992), about city kids being victimized by cops, has begun.

A bunch of city kids gathers to show off some moves--robotic "popping" and "locking," kicks that freeze in mid-motion-but within minutes cops are brandishing sticks and threatening them with insults.

After a brief skirmish all but D'Incredible crumple to the floor, victims of ghetto life. But as he leans over their prone bodies, his head and arms twitching in sorrow, they slowly rise to their feet. Shaking themselves as if from sleep, the group dances once more, this time rip-roaring with passion. "Hip-hop lives!" is the message, incarnated in the most thrilling choreography I've seen in years.

In addition to narrative dances, GhettOriginal's repertoire includes some that simply celebrate movement. In Moments in Motion (1988), the men, bare-chested and wearing harem pants, create a pyramid with their bodies and move their outstretched arms and hands in stylized gestures.

The five-year-old company includes former members of such pioneering hip-hop troupes as Magnificent Force, Rhythm Technicians, and Rock Steady Crew. They pick up their moves from a kaleidoscope of sources, including television's Soul Train, ballet, jazz, tap, boogie-woogie, modern dance, cartoons, martial arts, Egyptian painting, and African and Caribbean dance, and meld them all with great artistry and breathtaking physicality. The result is a mix of images that stay with you. So does their passion.