Canadiens’ Fresh Night of Daring Ballet

Not long ago, every major ballet company in North America devoted itself to the expansion of the classical tradition--new works, creative risk--with repertory revivals and pop dance novelties no more than sideshows. Today, however, only single-choreographer troupes such as Alonzo King’s and Eliot Feld’s consistently follow that dream, with the rest relying on cream-puff programming of some kind to pull in an ever-aging, narrowing audience.

Enter Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, a splendidly trained, 40-year-old Montreal ensemble that reminded everyone how gloriously fresh and unpredictable ballet can be in a challenging program at Cal State L.A. on Saturday. The three choreographers on view all currently direct their own companies and their pieces all proved distinctively ‘90s in their movement vocabularies, approaches to music (in this case, taped) and insistence on showing one thing from a number of angles rather than pursuing any developmental design.

Using six Prokofiev waltzes, James Kudelka’s stylish “Desir” offered too many passages of conventional, swoony display dancing but grew hot and impressive whenever its seven couples attacked waltz steps and rhythms with the vigor of folk dancers and emphasized the mating call within three-quarter time.

Continually doubling back on itself, Edouard Lock’s “Etude” suffered from false endings and a dreary score by Gavin Bryars, but superbly translated to pointe the vision of feral female power that Lock made famous with his company La La La Human Steps. The five women and four men looked technically amazing here, dancing with thrilling speed, intricacy and stamina in a rock ballet without rock music.

With its delicate foot-ripples, torso shimmers and sudden group swervings that resembled a school of fish changing direction, Nacho Duato’s “Duende” matched five Debussy pieces for flute and/or harp with a weightless, pressureless virtuosity. Largely derived from modern dance technique, its style also fused angular body-sculpture and gymnastics with a sense of serene lightness and limitless freedom.

Artful costumes and lighting added to the luster of an important company largely unknown to local audiences. Our loss.