Pacifica Looks at Relationships

Love, betrayal, yearning and a large dollop of perpetual motion coursed through Ballet Pacifica’s Eclectic Orange Festival program Saturday afternoon at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Under Molly Lynch’s artistic direction, the company had varying opportunities to shine-which it mostly did-in dances spanning styles and centuries, including two commissioned premieres.

With cellist Tanya Tomkins and harpsichordist Corey Jamason splendidly playing Baroque music, the mood was set for 18th century passions in choreographer Robert Sund’s “Liaisons.” Inspired by the films “Valmont” and “Dangerous Liaisons,” the source material was originally a novel, then a play and even an opera. As a dance, however, it doesn’t quite work. Decadence needs more than forced emoting and air kissing. This battle between love and virtue felt contrived, though Liz Stillwell’s atmospheric lighting injected the work with a smattering of sensuousness.

Caroline Jones danced convincingly as the sultry, conniving Le Marquis, while Tom Barber as Le Vicomte also had a haughty air. His seduction of Mademoiselle (Hitomi Yamada, too perky for the part), though stealthy, fell flat. Paul Michael Bloodgood struggled as Le Chevalier, notably in his partnering of Yamada and his clumsy landings; while Tye Gillespie’s Le Baron comported himself nobly. The corps, however, provided little but posturing.

In the other premiere, Susan Hadley’s “Aquilarco” set to the percussive music of Sollima, nine dancers spun, ran and leaped in neo-Tharp-ian mode. The work proved dizzyingly fun, with the dancers creating shifting line patterns and swift “Riverdance”-like footwork-although abundant arm gestures occasionally gave off a whiff of cheerleading.

Lynch’s 1992 work, “Different Trains,” set to Steve Reich’s “After the War,” had a melancholy quality. A dozen dancers sporting Rhonda Earick’s 1940s period costumes went through the motions of meeting and greeting, coupling and uncoupling, periodically marred by wobbly partnering.

Completing the program was Antony Tudor’s classic work “Sunflowers,” in which four women and two men sensitively explored relationships to Janacek’s plaintive String Quartet No. 1.