TV DANCE REVIEW : The Joffrey on Channel 28

Invaluable but congenitally uneven, the PBS “Dance in America” series sometimes meticulously preserves the form and content of stage choreography and sometimes trashes it with disorienting camera work and incoherent editing. The newest episode, “A Night at the Joffrey,” includes samples of both extremes.

Studio-taped in Denmark, the hour-long telecast is scheduled for 9 p.m. tonight on Channels 28, 15 and 24; Saturday at 9 p.m. on Channel 50.

Frederick Ashton’s serene trio “Monotones II” (1965, music by Satie) and Gerald Arpino’s elegiac septet “Round of Angels” (1983, music by Mahler) are each lovingly transcribed for television with astute camera placements, long (unbroken) takes and near-perfect transitions between shots.

In contrast, William Forsythe’s bitter, abrasive “Love Songs” (1979, set to pop ballads sung by Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick) is flayed alive. Sometimes the camera is so close, the dancers seem about to be bludgeoned by the lens--and what they do is often cut into snippets that don’t connect. The opening section has even been photographically reprocessed to make the movement look jerky and unnatural.

Interestingly, Forysthe himself was responsible for these innovations--plus adding loads of dancers, furniture and dramatic action to the work that aren’t in the stage version. There’s also a new ending--with clips from the previous sections--that’s MTV to the max.

The dancers look splendid through every challenge, of course, especially Leslie Carothers in the Forsythe and Arpino ballets and Beatriz Rodriguez in a “Love Songs” duet. Incidentally, the program forthrightly treats the Joffrey as a New York company, ignoring the illusion of bicoastalism that continues to linger locally and nowhere else. Thomas Grimm directed the dance sequences, Judy Kinberg the helpful choreographer interviews.