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Showcase fine venue for choreographers

JENNIFER BREWER

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The Maine State Ballet audience enjoyed a rare treat Friday, when alumnae Leigh-Ann and Sara Esty joined company dancers and guests for the ballet's first Choreographer's Showcase (also presented Thursday).

The twin dancers got their start with the ballet company, bringing brilliance to roles such as Clara and Dew Drop Fairy in ''Nutcracker'' and the pas de quatre in Balanchine's ''Serenade.'' They now are entering their sixth year with Edward Villella's Miami City Ballet.

For the Maine State Ballet program, they created a quicksilver dance to George Gershwin's ''Fascinatin' Rhythm,'' sung by Harry Connick Jr.

They danced with zip and personality through an energetic (but all-too-short for the audience) balletic romp. Their polished, professional choreography highlighted the Estys' ability to dance in perfect unison and to complement each other's technique and style in solos.

Another gem was a modern dance piece by Juliette Lauzier, a prolific ballet teacher and choreographer. She originally created her solo, ''Broken Trust,'' for a benefit for Lewiston's Tri-City Mental Health Services.

To music by Javier Navarette, the dance represented a Ruth White Wolf poem about childhood betrayal. Lauzier portrayed the story with authenticity, elegance and strength. She showed vulnerability in fetal postures and empty embraces, anger in leaps and struggle in weight shifts and stretches, with articulate facial expressions and upper body movement. Her hands were a work of art.

Also in the modern genre was ''Ghosts from the Little Black Book,'' by guest choreographer Sarah Cost of New Hampshire's Neoteric Dance Collaborative. To a song by Marvin Gaye, the choreography was a blend of modern and jazz, with a bluesy feel and excellent use of space. The superb Neoteric dancers performed smoothly with strong extensions and lithe floor-work.

Bracketing the program were works by Maine State Ballet principal dancers Janet and Glenn Davis. Glenn Davis opened with Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, performed by a corps of seven women, with a pas de deux by Davis and Kate Hamilton.

This neoclassical piece reflected artistic director Linda MacArthur Miele's Balanchine-inspired choreographic orientation, with black rehearsal-wear costumes, smoothly changing formations and fast, precise footwork combined with a flowing upper body. Hamilton stood out in the pas de deux.

Janet Davis' closing work, ''Presto,'' to music by Felix Mendelssohn, featured the Estys along with Glenn Davis and company apprentice Michael Holden. This piece also highlighted the company's gift for footwork and graceful speed.

Other choreographers included Janet Ottman, who set a dazzling dance to what Miele's introduction called ''teenager-y Mozart'' by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra; Rebecca Purser, with the jazz-influenced ''Sweet and Lowdown'' (Gershwin); and Katie Farwell, with the more sultry ''Take Five'' (Paul Desmond).

Guest Elizabeth Hansen, director of Auburn's Androscoggin Dance Company, presented ''Colour de Verre,'' a breezy classical ballet danced by four women.

The evening presented a nice balance of experienced choreographers with those trying their creative wings. The Maine State Ballet should make the Choreographer's Showcase an annual event.

Jennifer Brewer of Saco is a freelance writer, teacher, musician and dancer.