The most arresting moment in the Smuin Ballet’s spring program came in the pas de deux of “Oasis,” choreographed by Helen Pickett, until recently head of the Atlanta Ballet. Here the couple (Erica Felsch and Robert Kretz) played out a dream-fantasy, almost as if swaying underwater, vicariously inviting us all  to put ourselves in that ethereal spotlight to the restless mystery music of Jeff Beal, adroit in its tasteful percussion.

Pickett gives us fleeting figures flitting by in the dark, and some odd combinations:  A pas de trois with just one woman, leaving the odd man excluded in frustrated frenzy; and a poetic trio of women. It benefited greatly from the squiggly watery light-projection designs of Nicholas Raymond.  It all led to a fast-paced finale, and a generous audience ovation at the Yerba Buena Gardens Center reacting to a supremely beautiful composition.

Calling on virtually the whole 18-member roster, Val Caniparoli created a zany dance piece “If I Were a Sushi Roll,” with pop songs. His ensemble turns up in coats and ties, like office workers on benzedrine with unison dances flying by in a blur, and various sushi-flavored placards rolling on and off the stage. Perhaps alluding to his long S.F. Ballet tenure and its annual “Nutcracker,” there’s  eight standing figures forming a rose—all in modern business attire (!). Hopping, twitching dancers with wind milling arms give way to a sexy people, then insane figures giving vent to frenetic gestures while seated precariously at the lip of the stage. Highlight of the troupe is the Other Erica, the red-haired  Ms. Chipp-Adams, in her solo “Printer in the Morning.” If you made more than Dadaistic sense of all this, the ending has a solo by the near-naked Robert Kretz to “Small Spaces,” crawling into, yes, a very small, box-like space where, I expected, a magician might shortly make him disappear altogether.

Choreographer Amy Seiwert’s Smuin Ballet swan song “Falling Up” merited far more than the lifeless Ballet 101 routine by four earthbound couples who have yet to hear of the buoyancy of movement making ballet so attractive. It does not do justice to her exemplary decade here as choreographer, on the verge of moving on to artistic directorship  of the Sacramento Ballet. And the tinkly electronic piano playing Brahms only added to the misjudgments in this night’s misfire.

Elsewhere however the Smuin Ballet  looked sharp in its high energy, with a corps of dashing men (among them Ben Needham-Wood and Dustin James) who were very strong hoisting ladies, yet without any unsightly weight-lifter’s bulk.

BALLET AFTERMATH—Next season, the Smuin co.’s 25th, will bring back Seiwert long enough to create a world premiere.

Smuin Contemporary American Ballet April 20-June 2 at the Yerba Buena Gardens Center, S.F., as well as three other cities. For Smuin info: (415) 912-1899, or go online. www.smuinballet.org   

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