Maximum Dance Company.

MAXIMUM DANCE COMPANY GUSMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS MIAMI, FL MAY 21 -22, 2004

David Palmer and Yanis Pikieris, artistic directors of Maximum Dance Company, are three choreographers in two. Individually they create works for their small but responsive ensemble (at present five women and five men); just as often, though, they collaborate, a rare arrangement in ballet.

Maximum's closing program this year featured a premiere and a revival by the directors in joint effort. Though different in tone, both works showed off the dancers' luminous qualities: their sensitivity to emotional uplift and their force as top-notch technicians. From 2000, Follow Me best represented the company throughout Giovanni Solima's alternately chirpy and tidal score, Aquilarco. Pulled along after a dreamy, conjuring solo by Andrea Dawn Shelley, a trio of keyed-up men (with Cristian Laverde Konig in wondrous whirls and Mikhael Plain soaring) was followed by women (Sally Ann Isaacks leading in serenity and zest), to end in conviviality.

Though not extraordinary in structure, the work gained airiness and amplitude especially as lit in gauzy colors by Eric Fliss--through the chiffon-smooth classical flourishes and an idyllic spirit that capitalized on playfulness, a troupe trademark

The new Romantic Interludes upheld this verve but at the service of boy-bumps-against-girl vignettes, with the costuming and foolery of commedia dell'arte. The wink-and-grin here braved alternating piano and string compositions by Brahms and Dvorak. The good-natured lampooning of sentiments sank a bit; crisper, more consequential character sketches were needed, yet balletic pep kept fun in the froth.

Maximum often brings the edgier dramas of contemporary European choreographers into its mix. Silent Night, Still We Dream, by Royal Ballet of Flanders' Daniel Rosseel, played off Alfred Schnittke's dissonant take on the title's Christmas carol and passages from Arvo Part. With finely acted mischief, a solitary Marife Gimenez in a white slip wobbled up flora a chair to traipse around in high heels, her precariousness more of the soul than in the soles. When Douglas Gawriljuk slid down a pole like a eat burglar to join her, their flop-over holds and aching angles turned into tough love. It worked for her: She smacked him and escaped their pressure-cooker liaison like a wisp of steam up the pole.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.maximumdancecompany.com