Collective puts its talent into motion

Among the many struggling classical ensembles trying to establish themselves in the Southland, the 3-year-old Ballet Collective has one major -- indeed, crucial -- advantage that outweighs the thrift-shop production values and uneven technical skills evident in its performance Friday at L.A. Theatre Center.

That big, big plus is effective, original choreography. Artistic director John Castagna knows what audiences want from classical dance, how to use it to tell stories persuasively and how to make dancers of vastly different levels of experience look good in it.

Castagna’s new one-act “Midsummer Night’s Dream” (to Mendelssohn) distills Shakespeare’s comedy into a restless, deftly organized divertissement for five couples on the make, with Puck’s magical transformation of Bottom here representing a kind of kinky foreplay. (Hey, it’s L.A.)

Partnered ardently by Joe Gutierrez as Oberon, the majestic Paris Wages dominates the ballet as Titania. However, Omhmar Griffin and Darlesia Cearcy bring something special and endearing to the passages for Theseus and Hippolyta: a happy belief that all the familiar conventions of classical partnering were invented just so that they could touch one another as often as possible.

Wages and Gutierrez return in Castagna’s “Golden Slave” (to Rimsky-Korsakov): updated ballet exotica with a sense of humor, technical savvy and a curious narrative gaffe midway through.

Castagna’s new “Loss” mourns the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by contrasting anguished solos for Heather Lipson with the near-immobility of a four-member corps: witnesses and sometimes the victims themselves. Alanis Morissette recordings add their own poignancy.

Veteran local ballet teacher Stefan Wenta expresses grief differently but no less strongly through the weighty sculptural imagery of his 1998 duet “Mater Dolorosa” (to Gorecki), danced with authority by Natasha Kautsky and Tim La Viano. If Castagna’s hyperactive and idea-crammed choreography doesn’t always have time for the flow and finish of classical ballet at its most refined, these virtues are embodied in Wenta’s new “Arabesque” (to Debussy), a graceful quartet for the young girls of his Wenta Ballet.

Besides those dancers mentioned, others in the Ballet Collective performance included Edgar Ovando, Christina Putrelo, Sheldon Peregrino and Atle Hoff.