277danceproject at BAC

277danceproject--an all-female corps, formed in 2008 by choreographer Nicole Philippidis--performs contemporary dance with well-groomed discipline and grace. Two Philippidis works--shown this past weekend at the Baryshnikov Arts Center--seem to aim for conventional accessibility by way of a pleasant, dreamy aesthetic.

The opening piece, In Between--featuring watercolor projections by Peter Zaharatos--reportedly has something to do with time, space and states of consciousness. (All dance can claim the same, no?) Over its 25 or so minutes, the movement and performances are neat and uniform; the music, lulling. One waits for a radical nerve end to start throbbing and inject a little rebellion to go along with the deepening intensity of Zaharatos's imagery.

After an intermission, the company came back with a work made with a quite different, earthy approach--choreographed by guest artist Kim Jones. In Burning Consumption, several women act out examples of women's compulsive behavior around appearance, exercise, vitamin-consumption and the like. Oddly enough, it's a work that's not afraid to be awkward and ugly in service to the cause. However, it's over very quickly as if--having held a mirror up to certain excesses, then lightly swatting us over the head with that mirror--Jones had nowhere else to take us.

Philippidis's romantic Red Forest concluded the program on a soft, sleepy note, with a space filled with women evoking perhaps classical statuary of nymphs dancing and bathing under the moon in the grove of a temple. Philippidis's structure shows musical, formalist skill, and Ariel Pierce's lighting is wonderfully sensitive.

Visit 277danceproject here.