Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal

dance

Here's a novel idea. Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal arrives this week with a program all about dancing -- not a showcase for a famous choreographer, or a big stage production, or about dramatic effects. Artistic director Louis Robitaille, who grew up as a dancer in the 32-year-old Ballets Jazz company before turning himself into an international superstar with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, believes that too often dancers are incidental to dance concerts shaped around ideas or effects. Under his directorship, the company's emphasis is squarely on the performers.

What that means for the Annenberg visit this week is a program of high-impact movement -- sensual, virtuoso and daring -- showcased in a kaleidoscope of short pieces. Ballets Jazz's young (age 30) staff choreographer, Crystal Pite, for one, presents Short Works: 24, a little tour de force in which 24 snippets of dance, each about one minute long, all different, tumble across the stage. Another young choreographer, Jason Shipley-Holmes, presents Clin d' Oeil, an explosion of breakdance that will happen in an "eye blink." And these are just a few of the dances on a program that includes Philadelphia-based musician Bobby McFerrin's music used by Shawn Hounsell for "Circle Songs."

Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, Thu., March 25, 7:30 p.m., Fri., March 26, 8 p.m., Sat., March 27, 2 and 8 p.m., $28-$39, Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut St., 215-898-3900.

—Janet Anderson

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