Parsons Dance

Every year, I get to experience the pure joy that is Parsons Dance. David Parsons is one of the seminal figures on the contemporary dance scene, and the current season at the Joyce, that glorious temple to dance smack-dab in the heart of Chelsea, is a bit of sunshine in the January gloom.

I'm going to start, not with the terrific company premiers, but with the piece that rightfully has become Parsons' calling card. What "Revelations" is to Alvin Ailey, so is "Caught" to Parsons. Some people consider this piece "gimmicky," or, in the Times' reviewer's words, a "contraption." Well, what of it? Isn't all dance gimmicky and full of contraptions? When we see a ballerina turn on point in Act Two of "The Sleeping Beauty" for the "Rose Adagio," we're cheering her sheer athleticism.

So, too, here. Only here, the lighting, the music and the kineticism of the sole dancer add up to something as breathtaking as anything in the dance vocabulary. A man wearing skintight white pants gives us a warm-up to the piece's real pay-off: a strobe light every couple of seconds shows him in mid-air or at different points in the stage.

As performed by a blond Adonis named Eric Bourne, the piece is easily as good -- and as moving -- as any of the other times I've thrilled to experience it. Bourne deserves credit, not only for going through this rigorous exercise and then plunging into a pas de deux in the next piece, but also for sticking with dance when he could easily be making the bucks as a Ralph Lauren model. Yeah, he's that good looking.

"Round My World" is a season premiere. Set to some kooky music by Zoe Keating, the piece is, as the title implies, all about circles. Like Ptolemy's geocentric universe, there are circles within circles. It's a universe onto itself and beautiful to behold, especially given the way the company members balance one another.

The other premier is "A Stray's Lullaby." The '30s bluegrass melodies will be familiar to fans of Tom Waits or anyone who saw the Coen Brothers' film "O Brother Where Art Thou?" As someone who grew up in the heart of Bluegrass Country, I'll admit that I find this music alternately haunting and annoying, but as performed by Kenji Bunch, it provides a nice accompaniment to the action onstage, leavened by the sounds of traffic noises.

We see four performers, two men and two women, dressed in what can only be described as Depression Chic, a la "Bonnie and Clyde." There's a light off in the distance to which the dancers seem to be reaching and shying away from. The lovely choreography, by Katatzyna Skarpetowska, The overall effect was like an abstract interpretation of those great Warner Brothers '30s films or a Hopper painting.

Whether in pairs or in solos, the dancers expressed a yearning toward ... something. It hinted at the infinite while being grounded in the here and now. It was really a remarkable piece, and the audience responded with deserved kudos.

On the program I saw, I absolutely loved an excerpt from 1994's "Step Into My Dream," a two-hander for the ever-energetic Eric Bourne (please get me some of whatever this guy is on!) and Sarah Braverman. A kinda-sorta homage to those wild mid-'60s dances made popular on TV from shows like "Hullabaloo," the outfits were reminiscent of go-go dancers suspended in cages. My only "complaint" is that Braverman should have been wearing giant hoop earrings. Otherwise, it was as blissfully silly as the Frug, the Watusi and those other "recreational" dances that made the '60s synonymous with inspired fun.

If "Step" memorializes the Uptown clubs like the Sanctuary, Arthur and the Peppermint Lounge, 2002's "Swing Shift" recalls the gentler dances of sock hops and swing dancing. In pairs, singly or as a company, it is a raucous evocation that, as the name implies, swings from moody to haughty to just fun. My only qualm was the costumes -- weird-fitting pantsuits that didn't flatter the dancers' moves.

Parsons is one of the really great companies whose season makes the Joyce such a vital part of the city's dance scene. The company will only be here through Jan. 22, so hop on board for a wild ride.