Five songs formed the musical base for “Blues” with 26 dancers moving nonstop from one to the other. “Jacksboro Highway” brought two groups of eight sashaying in diagonal lines. Jazz arms, parallel attitude turns and gymnastic lifts fused with strong classic ballet vocabulary performed on toe. Wells’ melding of styles allowed the high energy of jazz to dominate, yet used the clean lines of classical movement.

“Lonely Avenue,”a soft blues duet, opened with Jennifer Boren and Kyle Linzer moving in lonely isolation from a chair at stage left, then were joined by the full cast.

Large groups on stage developing clean designs in rapid succession, was especially appealing in the fourth, “Blue Jean Blues,” to down and dirty blues by Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. “Hey Miss Bessie” closed with the cast jiving together in acrobatic jitterbug style.

The “Wedding Pas de Deux,” an excerpt from Dickinsons’s 2006 version of “Coppelia” was the classical adagio section. Amanda Geilenfeldt and Louis Giannini moved in formal, guided pirouettes and promenades, with repeated lifts of Geilenfeldt onto Giannini’s shoulder in a curved, swan-like shape.

Dickinson’s 1998 “Shining” was an especially charming folkdance-based piece, danced to music of Green Chile Jam Band. Here, a large group of dancers ranged in age from about ten years to adult. The younger ones formed three lines around the stage, seated with backs to the audience, gently rocking side to side to a Caribbean beat. It was a greetings dance, with a positive unifying theme of people meeting people, “Building a bridge between two lands.” “Looking for a Planet,” with the full cast, gave a utopian environmental view of the future.

David Chavez choreographed “Counterchange” in 1990. Boren and Dominic Guerra performed in a lyrical, yet gymnastic duet, with fluid exchanges of physical weight that defined a romantic relationship― with elegant eye-grabbing balances of one body above the other!

Two scenes from Dickinson’s “Dracula” followed. “Castle Dracula” introduced a marvelously magical Jaime Chacon as Dracula manipulating and tormenting Giannini as Jonathan Harker. The Brides of Dracula played wickedly with Harker before Dracula reentered to dance a strong duet with Harker of excellent timing and dramatic intensity as Dracula viciously beat and, of course, bit his victim.

The Crypt scene featured slithery minions, as Dracula gave new, mysterious meaning to domestic abuse with his new bride, danced by Boren.

Tomlinson’s “Resolutione,” music by Bond, was danced in three sections. A Russian folk quality dominated the first and third, and a contemporary electronic beat emerged in the second. Boren, Kimberly White, Chacon and Giannini, backs to the audience, began to move, their slow, powerful, hip-leading walks becoming a leading motif. There were many entrances and exits, giving each dancer moments for solo work. Even in the contemporary musical section, movement was entirely classical, with promenades, some great jumps in first position, pirouettes and leaps.

Chavez danced a dramatic solo, titled “Crossroads,” to“Out of the Rain,” sung by Etta James. Dressed as a cowboy, Chavez demonstrated his control of the stage with sharp changes of direction and focus, projecting carefully chosen, expressive gestures. The character is surviving alone at a crossroad in his life. Chavez moves like the professional he is.

Company founder Suzanne Johnston’s “Rhapsody,” to music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, opened with a splash of movement by two large groups of dancers costumed in black and white. This was extremely complex and tight musical choreography: dancers moved off and on stage in couples, trios and groups of eight. A monumental quality to the choreography succeeded in fulfilling the exciting bombast of the music, although some dancers occasionally were a little shaky on balance. The young dancers had a strong commitment to both music and choreography as the dance was quite explosive in energy output. Johnston is a master of little question and answer sequences between groups. Using a classic vocabulary, surprises appeared, such as a hovering bird-of-prey leap, and a sudden drop to the floor by the cast at the dance’s end.

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