Lines Contemporary Ballet, Joyce Theater, May 26-31, 1998.

JOYCE THEATER MAY 26-31, 1998

Women hover on pointe, whack their legs from arabesque to six o'clock high in front, pitch into large, swooping leg circles, then fly into a frenzy of angular gestural semaphore. Men turn in Second, perched on half-toe, then snap to hack attitude, balance, whip off a double pirouette, then leap with splayed limbs. The action is nonstop, aggressively muscular, and all done at a manic pace. Vigorous distortions of classic ballet poses take precedence: turned-in extensions, crooked elbows, hunched spines.

The fifteen dancers of Alonzo King's San Francisco-based Lines Contemporary Ballet take on his taxing movement with fierce technique and loads of energy. Their sheer force and speed occasionally elicit bursts of applause, even from blase New Yorkers. Many of the dancers are alumni of San Francisco Ballet; they're polished and fearless throughout the two programs presented at the Joyce, which featured works by King made within the last two years.

In Three Stops on the Way Home Rodolphe Cassand bounds like a springbok through a gambit of tricky jumping turns, backed by lithe Melanie Henderson and Debra Rose. Gracious, supple Chiharu Shibata maintains equanimity while being manipulated like a puppet by Gregory Dawson, Brian Chung, and Yannis Adoniou. In Klang, a precarious promenade turn on one toe puts an astounding cap on Maurya Kerr's tough solo, earning an ovation; and tall, flame-haired Nora Heiber is charmingly dotty in her long-limbed variations. In Suite Etta, lanky Lauren Porter bats her limber legs to Etta James's version of "St. Louis Blues."

King knows how to move dancers around a stage with the best of them. But his constant warping of lyric lines and penchant for gestural quirkiness sometimes feel forced--born, perhaps, of an infatuation with Eurochic sensibility. One longs for a respite from the unrelenting pitch of exertion, a simple, unfraught phrase. Suite Etta is apparently King's first use of popular song, rather than the classical or brash contemporary music he usually favors. The switch works. James's soulful singing, drenched with true emotion, gives context to King's fractured phrasing and makes it seem less arbitrary.

The two most recent works are also less frenetic. There's space in Long Straight Line. Miguel Frasconi's collage score uses Indian and Tibetan atmospheric sounds and melodies. The dance's symmetrical structure gives it a ritual quality: Both parts I and II begin with a soloist, backed by four others, first Debra Rose with women, then Ryan Brooke Taylor with men. Between these sections are a sensuous male duet for Adoniou and Eric Hoisington that suggests both rivalry and dependence, and four solo and duet variations to showcase individuals: Hoisington, whose beautifully crisp, clear dancing shines throughout the repertory; Summer Lee Rhatigan; Henderson with Shibata; and Marina Hotchkiss. Part III is an ensemble dance for nine women.

Tarab (Arabic for "ecstasy"), with music by Nubian master Hamza El Din, is a four-part suite of comparatively meditative dynamic with sparser, less aggressive movement than that of the other dances. Though not specifically depicted in the choreography, southern African customs and rituals inspired the dance and seem to have tempered King's obsession for density of space and motion. The last section, "Ollin Alageed" ("Wedding Dance"), eschews the customary full company blowout in favor of brief entrances and crossovers by individuals and couples, recombining motifs. Lisa Pinkham's hauntingly mysterious lighting features a constant diagonal beam of white light, which fades on continuing action to signal the serene ending.