JAZZ DANCE BY DIAMOND VALLEY THEATRE

You don’t go to jazz dance performances looking for new movement ideas--but Dave Massey of Diamond Valley Dance Theatre recycles the familiar show-biz vocabulary deftly, with a sharp eye for pacing and flow that better-known local jazz choreographers might well envy.

The disappointment with Massey’s four-part program Sunday at the Pilot Theatre arose less from choreography than from execution. Massey’s well-drilled ensemble from Diamond Bar varied so much in age, skill, evident experience and even weight that it was hopeless to expect a unified professional style.

For example, the highly promising James Miller--so young-looking that he probably needs his parents’ consent to dance Massey’s steamy adagios--was often paired with women a little old and much too hefty for the slinky, hedonistic approach prevalent here.

Massey set a strong example technically, though in his rock story ballet “Apollo and Coronis” (previously reviewed) he lacked the unbridled power and athleticism of Shunnon Thomas in the same role at Loyola Marymount University last May.

In “Jumpin’ at the Waldorf” the company bounced through vintage hipster cliches and comic character-vignettes engagingly, the women wearing revealing and ill-fitting lame dresses, the men in garish suits that seemed to have been dipped in crayon dye.

Everyone dressed better in “Simply Jazz,” where the costumes (black suits accented with touches of red on suspenders, hatbands, shoes, etc.) helped give the fast, intricate group patterns a semblance of ensemble cohesion.

Shorter than the pauses before and after it, “Crunchy Granola Suite” began with an intriguingly moody and loosely structured sequence before settling into the inevitable allegro salesmanship.

Taped music accompanied all the dances.