Inspiring Work From Bleak Material

When Nederlands Dans Theater smiles, take cover. Masters of the most somber and soulful modernism, the company choreographers steep even their lighter works in bitter irony, and smiles tend to be cold if not downright cruel.

Case in point: most of the four-part program on Tuesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Dominated by what artistic director Jiri Kylian called “deadly humor” in one of his program notes, the performance offered the familiar Nederlands Dans paradox--a bleak vision of human existence embodied in dancing and choreography inspired enough to be life-affirming.

Unyieldingly sardonic, Kylian’s “Sweet Dreams” (1990) made each of its eight dancers carry and manipulate apples, the primal Judeo-Christian symbol of human corruption. All actions and relationships became conditioned by the placement of those apples, and fleeting glimpses of apple-free bliss turned out to be nothing but fantasy.

Despite the icy fervor of the cast, Kylian’s work suffered from original sin of its own making: the choice of Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra, a score with no movement dynamic, no real options for a choreographer other than arranging arbitrary quasi-dramatic events around all the portentous outbreaks of crashing and smashing.

The Mozart he used in “Six Dances” (1986) allowed Kylian far more flexibility--plus a stylistic pretext for a nasty parody of ballet. To be sure, he exploited the speed, intricacy and elegance of classicism--but focused on savaging ballet’s expressive language in antic vignettes for eight dancers disfigured by stark-white makeup and powdered wigs.

Adding a bizarre counterpoint to all the frantic gesticulation, whispered conspiracies and mindless seductions: big, stiff, black ball gowns moving across the stage by themselves like forces of destiny. And at the end, with everyone assembled for an audience-courting unison celebration a la “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Nutcracker,” Kylian unleashed a shower of bubbles as his final comment on ballet spectacle.

Paul Lightfoot’s “Softly as I Leave You” (1994) also brought a contemporary perspective to classical tradition--in this case, those ballets in which toys come to life, from “The Nutcracker” to “La Boutique Fantasque” and beyond. Here seven dancers in their underwear emerged from wooden boxes for solos and duets, with individual virtuosity very much in the spotlight, but also the sad sense that relationships are temporary and we’re all permanently boxed in, one way or the other.

Indeed, you could call this a Zen divertissement, cleverly designed by Sol Leon (its impressive lead female dancer) and accompanied by recordings so impossibly eclectic you half suspect they were chosen at random (an Arvo Part kyrie, a Bach air, a Rodgers and Hart ballad, the humming chorus from Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” and more).

Among the soloists, Karine Guizzo soared through a high-velocity statement of self-sufficiency, Jorma Elo brightened a depiction of happy domesticity and Mario Radacovsky brought emotional weight and dignity to his lyric/athletic solo and the increasingly loss-laden duets with Leon.

Loss also pervaded Kylian’s magnificent “Soldier’s Mass,” first danced locally 16 years ago at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion when it was brand-new, though the title was translated as “Field Mass” at that time.

Set to a score by Martinu honoring resistance to the Nazis, the ballet served as a tribute to male valor throughout history--and to the sacrifice of those men. In 1980, it also helped expand the possibilities for male dancing, sustaining a refined sensitivity previously the province of star soloists but scarcely what you’d expect from a 12-man corps.

By keeping the dancers turned away from the audience for much of the work, Kylian emphasized collective rather than individual experience, attempting an epic statement and succeeding triumphantly. He also designed the perfect backdrop: threatening sky, scorched earth and an endless rim of fire along the horizon.

Today, the score, choreography and performances speak eloquently about Bosnia, Burundi and other recent killing fields, with the men’s camaraderie and convulsive fear especially poignant. Again, a dark vision, but one created and danced at a thrilling level of artistry.

* Nederlands Dans Theater repeats this program tonight at 8, then offers a different program Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $18-$59. (714) 556-2787.