DANCE REVIEW : Mixed Bag of Offerings at UCI Faculty Concert

Things were looking pretty grim at the Wednesday night opening of UC Irvine’s faculty dance concert when the curtain rose, midway through the program, on Donald McKayle’s “Ringalevio.”

A wooden attempt at Fokine’s “Les Sylphides,” staged by Kathy Auten under Donald Bradburn’s supervision, was weighed down by mechanical phrasing and myriad problems with myriad arms and feet. Israel Gabriel’s premiere, “Mirage,” to the music box-gone-awry score of Grant Rohr, was a laughably awful pastiche of modern dance cliches and gimmicks, including gratuitous semi-nudity and entrances made via a stage-floor pneumatic lift.

James Penrod’s “Septenarius: Suite for Seven Women,” to (unspecified) music by Vivaldi, looked like a Cliff Notes version of Paul Taylor’s signature style. A constant stream of runs, turns, walks and jetes kept seven women moving from one side of the stage to the other, but without the freshness and muscular purpose that imbue the original.

And then, zap! Along came McKayle’s premiere, crackling with sexual energy and powerhouse dancing by the “Raptors” and “Marauders,” particularly Achmed Valk, Tom Smith and Kathy Auten. Named after the children’s game in which members of one group capture members of the other, “Ringalevio” features hot-to-trot teen-agers wearing leopard print tights, vests, big hair and micro-minis.

Smokey music by Astor Piazzolla set up the grinding hips, the backbends, the stretches, the conjurers’ gestures and the legs that step and retreat as if on a spring. The thrill of the piece comes from the dancers’ cat-like shifts of weight and almost palpable quality of tensile strength.

The program concluded with another premiere, Pat Carney’s deftly workmanlike “Blues in the Night,” which segues from one famous tune to another while a cast of characters in ‘20s garb regroup in continuously shifting patterns in a hotel lobby. Standouts were statuesque Linda Cameron as The Lady from the Road and Paul Davis as a suave Young Lover and partner.

Performances continue through Saturday at the Fine Arts Village Theatre .

Members of UC Irvine’s dance faculty perform works by Donald McKayle, Israel Gabriel and Pat Carney; Fokine’s “Les Sylphides,” and James Penrod’s “Septenarius: Suite for Seven Women,” in the Fine Arts Village Theatre at UCI, Campus Drive and Bridge Street, Irvine. Curtain: tonight at 8 and Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets: $7 to $11. Information: (714) 856-6616.