Philadanco PIFA performance four beautiful, heterogeneous choreographies

'Global Artistry," Philadanco's contribution to this year's Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, consisted of four short works, all beautifully presented and each created by a choreographer from a different country. An enthusiastic crowd filled the Perelman Theater on Friday night as 'Danco began its three-day run.

The performance, to a rhythmically and melodically complex recording by Zap Mama, "Labess," from Jamaican choreographer David Brown, was thrilling. Led by tiny and impossibly flexible Rosita Adamo, the seven dancers were equally comfortable with Brown's homages to Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham and his daring, inventive movements - like the duet danced by Adamo and the tall, prodigiously talented Adryan Moorefield.

Philippine native Francisco Gella choreographed "Between the Lines," with the women in sophisticated black dresses, the men wearing black trousers and low-necked shirts - designed, like all the evening's costumes, by Natasha Guruleva. The music, by Philip Glass and Gidon Kremer, was alternately minimalist and lush; likewise, Gella's steps required the performers to move in several different styles simultaneously. They did so with complete assurance.

I have long lobbied for a moratorium on stage smoke, but there was lots of the stuff in "Folded Prisms," by Thang Dao from Vietnam. To piano music by John Levis, the performers began and ended in a tight group, facing upstage. In between, they repeated combinations so intriguing it was a pleasure to watch them again.

There was humor - as in the quirky duet danced by Moorefield and William E. Burden, plus a stunning sequence pairing Adamo with the impressive Victor Lewis Jr. However, the white, jumpsuitlike costumes and heavenly lighting effects (by Nick Kolin) were less successful.

The program ended with "Super 8!", from Nebraska-born Ray Mercer. By turns exuberant and introspective, this piece included high-speed jumps, an emotional duet with Lewis and Jah'meek D. Williams, and another welcome solo turn by Moorefield.