Smuin’s Star Shadows, set to Ravel music, was an anomaly, particularly in Sandra Woodall’s costuming for six dancers, quite provocative for a ballet which excelled in the tender and chaste. If a subtle sense of aesthetic eluded his post San Francisco Ballet work, I continue to marvel at the Smuin skill in deploying dancers.

Twyla Tharp’s Armenia, a virtuoso gauntlet for two dancers, utilizes the folk melodies of that intriguing area bordering Turkey and Georgia. Jenna Maule and Kevin Delaney stepped up to the plate, but Delaney received the lion’s share of intriguing challenges. The multiple pleated skirt tutu in mixed pastel hues didn’t particularly compliment Maule’s pointe work. Company C must have paid a good penny for the privilege of premiering a work by Tharp, impressing me as being one very busy exercise. Tharp can’t seem to leave a good musical note alone.

David Grenke’s Vespers to Tom Waits score and danced by Kevin Delaney and Gianna Davy was for me the choreographic high point of the program. Davy’s capacity to be limp, a passive protester if there ever was one, was balanced by Kevin Delaney’s partnering skill and ability to handle Davy’s apparent dead weight. Grenke’s essay on the woes of relationship is quite absorbing. Anderson should be congratulated on this particular choice.

Danced on diagonal and horizontal lines, Anderson’s Bolero, premiered last year at Oakland’s Malonga Casquelourd’s Center for the Arts, gave nine dancers a formal, torso thrusting assignments.

The company will have a season, shared with invited companies, at the Casquelourd Center in Oakland, in June.

Maule, Davy, Delaney