Dance : Sevan Armenian Ensemble Performs at Gindi Auditorium

In its performance Saturday at Gindi Auditorium, University of Judaism, the Sevan Armenian Dance Ensemble alternately yielded to ambition and instinct: the ambition to seem professional versus the instinct to remain just plain folk.

Happily, instinct won. Whenever this Southern California institution stopped imitating the hard-sell Soviet touring companies and began treating its audience as friends, everyone relaxed.

Mgrdich Hagopian’s five-member instrumental group no longer sounded cautious but cut loose in an irresistibly raucous manner. The dancers (usually seven to nine men and an equal number of women) dropped their aggressive, impersonal attacks and reveled in their prowess with great warmth and charm.

Best of all, 74-year-old founder/choreographer Jora Makarian brought on his wife, their children and grandchildren as living testimony to the continuity of tradition in the Armenian diaspora.

Unfortunately, Makarian’s daughters outclassed the younger, slimmer company members in crucial matters of Armenian dance style: Once we’d seen their artful use of the shoulders, for instance, how could we accept the relatively flat, passive epaulement in “Eem Anush Davigh” and other women’s dances? Have such niceties disappeared over time or do the young dancers need coaching?

At their best, the Sevan dancers capitalized on strong footwork, energetic interplay and what seemed like natural elegance--qualities sustained impressively in the long suites.

Sometimes, however, everyone barely had time to show off his or her costume before a piece ended--and the number of very short selections (with pauses for costume changes) kept breaking the flow.

Camouflaging those costume changes: songs by Dolores Gasparian, Henrik Mihranian and Angela Savoian--one of those accomplished Makarian daughters.