UAA Dance Ensemble in concertBy ANNE HERMAN

Hot pink shoes are everywhere: sliding on and off feet, hanging from the ceiling, trailing on the floor like a train on a black wedding gown. A fuchsia-haired woman zips herself into a plastic shopping bag and lifts her bobbing head to the light. Music goes from a metallic trickle to an ear-shattering shriek. What's happening here?!

Guest choreographer Marianne Kim's "as if love might someday be fulfilled" showed the strengths and weaknesses of the UAA Dance Ensemble's concert Thursday night at UAA's Harper Studio Theater. Admittedly, Japanese Butoh dance, which inspired Kim's work, can be chaotic.

Things happened in her piece that seemed purposeless: why did the Dance Ensemble performers throw shoes over their shoulders and drag them back, what made a dancer stop in mid-movement and walk away? But the dance also possessed intensity and aggressiveness – dancers tentatively walking on a diagonal suddenly flailing in spasms, dancers repeatedly spiraling into wild drops to the floor. These images pushed you back in your seat, forcing your mind to understand what was bombarding your senses.

Clarity, confusion, intensity and blandness threaded the concert's five works. "Engineering Momentum", choreographed and danced by Irenerose Castillo and Kat Cunningham, was a relaxing contrast to Kim's over-stimulating dance.

In the first section the two moved in counterpoint: one fast and one slow, one curved and the other angular. Moments of suspension interspersed with actions shot from a cannon tied the whole together. In the second section they were on the same dance page: their movements filling the stage with swinging lunges and rolls on the floor.

Guest dancers from Momentum Dance Collective were beautiful in excerpts from Becky Kendall's "In-lighten." The dancers caught me from the start as solo performers moved in the isolated glow of a flashlight that seemed to either direct or reflect their movements. Overhead lights, spots, and bands of light sculpted the dancers' bodies and movements, hiding and revealing shapes and actions.

Joshua David Lee's "Moments That I Hold Close," on the other hand, had little to reveal or hide since there was minimal movement in the work. Lee couldn't commit himself to his actions or gestures and they became non-events. Rebekah Luhrs' original and live music helped the work to some degree, but even she was weak in her artistic determination.

Brian Jeffery's "Hips Sway, Shoulders Whisper," choreographed for the Dance Ensemble, almost said it all. There were certainly lots of swaying hips, but shoulders tended to be more stiff than soft and whispery. The last section saved the piece as the dancers let loose. They had a blast flirting with eyes, hips, and shoulders (at last) and heels that flitted and ground their way around the music.

The fall Dance Ensemble in Concert production often is a mixed bag, with some dances working wonderfully and others more ho-hum. But the concert gives these young people the opportunity to experiment and that's always a plus for any artist.

Anne Herman holds a master's degree in dance and has been a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts.