BALLET REVIEW : Ohio Troupe at Occidental College

Although strong in homegrown repertory, Ohio Ballet let production compromises undercut two borrowed 20th-Century masterworks, Sunday at Occidental College.

In other stagings, George Balanchine’s “Allegro Brillante” harnesses the shifting scale and density of Tchaikovsky’s Third Concerto for piano and orchestra. But by reducing the accompaniment to two pianos (on tape), Ohio Ballet made many of the choreographic choices seem arbitrary and pointless.

Normally, Antony Tudor’s “Dark Elegies” incorporates two landscape backdrops as part of its spatial design. Dancing the ballet against black drapes left the work’s many semi-circular compositions incomplete and also isolated what should have been a community of dancers.

(In fairness, a company representative said that the backdrops could not have been hung in Thorne Hall and many other tour venues and that Ohio Ballet dances “Allegro Brillante” to two pianos at home.)

Dim taped Mahler further weakened “Dark Elegies.” Except for David Shimotakahara’s intensity in the final lament, the dancers brought forceful technique but a strangely easy stoicism to Tudor’s depiction of communal grief. The final group section fared best, with the smallest positional changes eloquently revealing new states of feeling.

Nancy McDermott and Keith Scheaffer led “Allegro Brillante,” the former ideally fleet and precise (though looking rushed occasionally), the latter sometimes insecure in partnering challenges but more often commanding and elegant.

Two works by artistic director Heinz Poll displayed the company’s bold style and refined musicality with no compromises. Indeed, the octet “Planes/Configurations” boasted opulent color effects by Thomas R. Skelton: each group of dancers encased in a contrasting envelope of light.

Catching the energy and sense of play in Steve Reich’s “Eight Lines,” Poll used formal sequencing gambits, geometric deployments and sudden bursts of solo virtuosity in a youthful, offbeat classical showpiece.

In “Duet,” Poll set a series of short, demanding step combinations against a sustained Bach adagio, testing the dancers’ stamina and sense of flow. Capably partnered by Richard Dickinson, sinewy Stephanie Jan Moy uncoiled her limbs and stretched into severe classical extensions as if made of liquid steel.