On the avenue. Second Avenue...

Second Avenue Dance Company--resident dance troupe of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts--is showing off a whole lotta training and no small measure of pizzazz in several works presented this week in its annual spring season.

Above and below: Second Avenue Dance Company in Aszure Barton's Rookery
(Photos: Tony Dougherty)
 

Two programs interweave work by student dancemakers Matthew Flatley, Mariel Lugosch-Ecker, Allison Schieler and Austin Tyler with world premieres by Sydney Skybetter, Aszure Barton, Seán Curran and Kate Weare. I saw Program A last night.

Barton's got the edge on edge in Rookery, and the NYU students seem to have a handle on her style's striking blend of wired mania and stretchiness and odd locomotion. Skybetter catches them on the other end of things with the clean, cool, continuous reconfigurations of Little Boy. They look great in Mark Koss's costumes and Skybetter's exquisite choreography. Lucky, lucky, lucky students to have such exciting mentors as they set off into the professional sphere.

Above and below: Second Avenue Dance Company in Sydney Skybetter's Little Boy (Photos: Tony Dougherty)

I can't help it: Curran's Oh sleep, why dost thou leave me prompts the answer, "Dude, because you've got all those people dancing around you!" And Weare's Pura Vida makes me long to see Weare's own marvelous dancers get a crack at it.

Performances run through April 2, all at 8pm. For reservations and information, call 212-998-1982 (Monday-Friday, 1-5pm only).

NYU Tisch School of the Arts
111 Second Avenue, 5th Floor
(directions)