This year's faculty concert at Case Western Reserve University, Milestone, features another work by Pascal Rioult, whose "Bolero" made such an impression on us last year. Like associate professor and CWRU dance program Artistic Director Gary Galbraith, Rioult and his wife Joyce Herring are veterans of the Martha Graham Dance Company, which performed here last week.

Galbraith tells us that he and his wife Karen Potter, director of dance and associate professor at Case, "have known Pascal and Joyce for many years now." When Rioult first formed his company in 1991, the year of Graham's death, Galbraith was one of the first Graham company members who moonlighted for Rioult.

Not a bad connection for our local university dance program to have. The Pascal Rioult Dance Theater seems to enjoy a fairly high profile among dance companies based in Manhattan. They've consistently toured nationally and internationally since their formation in 1991, presenting an annual season at the Joyce Theater, the same venue the Graham Company appeared at there this fall. Rioult and Herring's greatest strength seems to be in the training and presentation of beautiful dancing.

In a 1996 Dance magazine article by Jack Mitchell, Rioult was described as a "contemporary romantic" who acknowledged his artistic debt to Martha Graham but "in no way imitated her, nor did he show evidence of struggling to divorce himself from her." Recent critical response to Rioult's choreography could be described as somewhat mixed but "Wien" (1995), the Rioult piece that Herring and Galbraith have set on CWRU's dancers this fall, has received critical praise. Mitchell described "Wien," set to Maurice Ravel's "La Valse," as having to do with societal decay in postwar Vienna. CultureVulture.com judged that "Wien" "made the strongest impression" among the dances in Rioult's Ravel Project. Rioult's own description of "Wien" in which "the Viennese Waltz, the very image of social refinement, becomes the symbol of a disintegrating society," reminds us of the atmosphere of the noir film classicThe Third Man.

Galbraith's contribution to the concert is another of his technology-based dances, striving for what he describes as "seamless integration of dance and technology." The large cast "MDC" celebrates the upcoming centennial of Mather Dance Center with "a choreographic journey using virtual realities/panoramas" through the studios of the much-refurbished 100-year-old Danish gymnasium. For us, Galbraith's technology-based dances have consistently exceeded expectations. They're built around ambitious technology that consistently works - "MDC" is in collaboration with Jared Bendis, director of the Freedman Center and the New Media Center at Case - and they present dancing that's interesting in itself.

Potter has restaged her "The Pleiades" for a cast of undergraduate majors and graduate students. Last seen in 1999, this work was inspired by the ubiquitous myth of the seven sisters.

The concert also includes two new works, a duet and a quartet, by graduate dance program alumnus and faculty member Richard Dickinson. His new job as artistic director of Ballet Western Reserve in Youngstown notwithstanding, he continues to choreograph for the dancers at Case, using contemporary ballet to explore the dynamics of human relationships.

A recent graduate of CWRU's MFA program and a part-time lecturer, Kelli Sanford, performs her solo "Blank Canvas," inspired by "Convergence #10," the 1952 drip painting by Jackson Pollock. Galbraith describes her as "a high dynamic performer with a penchant for style and energy in her choreography."

CWRU Faculty Dance Concert
8 p.m. Nov. 9-10 & 15-17, 2:30 p.m. Nov. 11
Mather Dance Center ¥ 11201 Bellflower
Students $5; others $7-$10
216.368.6262