Richmond Ballet.

In its fall season Richmond Ballet asked to be taken seriously as a versatile repertory company. Artistic director Stoner Winslett put her thirteen-year-old troupe into the smallish TheatreVirginia and presented a triple bill which included two premieres. The results were uneven. These dancers look best when the musical and dramatic values are explicit. They are more uncertain when it comes to subtlety of phrasing or musical tone.

Miriam Mahdaviani's Estampie brought this flaw to light. The former New York City Ballet dancer played up the Eastern influences in excerpts from Lou Harrison's Harp Suite and Double Concerto for Violin and Cello and cast her ensemble of nine in harem costumes. Unfortunately, Claire Taber and Brian Palmer, as the lead couple, found no more than a neutered exoticism in Mahdaviani's choreography. Such a potentially provocative gesture as a woman wrapping her leg around her partner's hip, for instance, lacked even a hint of spice.

The ensemble didn't do much better when it came to Estampie's shifting mood. Pursuing the more sinister side of Harrison's music toward the end of her piece, Mahdaviani let go with Second Position lunges and grands battements. Like her former boss, she understands the menacing possibility of a high kick. That is a lesson that Richmond Ballet has still to learn. The exception is the wickedly sharp Mandy Phelps--definitely someone to watch.

The other premiere, Val Caniparoli's Bow Out, was stronger by far. Arranged for four men and four women in two movements, it brought a Weimar-style decadence to the urban, sinewy saxophone score by David Bedford and Roy Powell. The first section was edgy, with its yanking port de bras and bobbing heads. The couples danced more at each other than with each other until the women finally jackknifed straight into the men. The second, more optimistic, section offered a relatively harmonious and elastic vision of partnership.

There was also some cross-dressing, with the women finally taking the stage in the black suits worn by the men at the start. Diving across the stage with sass and verve, rhumbaing with sex and pulse, the dancers looked as if they had been waiting all night to shake loose in this work.

Antony Tudor's Jardin aux Lilas ("Lilac Garden") received an earnest reading by the company, which benefited from the live accompaniment of Weigang Li (violin) and John Walter (piano). Christopher Smidt had just the right stiffness to his upper lip as the fiance and Mary Maus was juicy as Caroline. Bonus credit goes to Kristen Gallagher, who brought more than a whiff of vinegar to her role as the mistress.