VIEW OF THE MOTHER'S DAY.

LOS ANGELES, CA--In gingham-checked flouncy skirts, a quartet of lovelies gathers at the park. They are pert, prim, and full of pride pushing their baby strollers. But lo! The perfect picture dissolves as the happy-young-mother facade gives way to reveal hoydenish upstarts. Soon "moms" convert their strollers to bumper cars and race about. The bucolic music explodes into big-band Latin rhythms, and a smartly choreographed rampage shows just how conflicted the protagonists are about motherhood and the so-called glamorous single life.

What a bracing comment far May 9 (Mother's Day)! Little Helios Dance Theater lit up California State University at Northridge's stage with the multifaceted dances choreographed by its director, Laura Gorenstein Miller. They ranged from outre humor (a fright-wigged go-go dancer on fifteen-foot platform shoes cavorting to music of the Isley Brothers) to relational affection (a country-Hawaiian duet that's all body alliances) to otherworldly mysticism (a trio of chic robots). Her choreography has an individual stamp and fits a single vision.