Mind and Body Repertory Dance at the Loeb through Sunday

IT'S NOT ONLY the painter who controls space and form but also the dancer who can assemble or dismantle his tableaus repeatedly. Last night's five works performed by the Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) from the University of Utah were a retrospective of dance tableaus that took the audience from ceilings of Italian basilicas to the modernist galleries of New York's Museum of Modern Art The artists as choreographers were more than competent; the artists as dancers, controlled and beautiful.

This modern dance company, unlike most groups that draw their choreography from their leaders, (choreographer-dancers) performs works written by more than twenty artists including members of the company. Opening with a piece written by a guest teacher and artist Jose Limon, the troupe interprets the Concerto Grosso in D Minor with the classic curves dictated by his style. Like Limon's dance of Otherllo- the Moor's Pavane -the Concerto creates and expands circular space. Vivaldi's fast paced score supports the swirl of emotions performed by the group.

Interim, choreographed by a member of the company, Bill Evans, colorfully mixes orange and pink tights with electronic music. It's not quite as dynamic as Merce Cunningham and John Cage, but the harmony of modern dance and electronic music works as effectively. Evans creates many beautiful movements-girls suddenly atop the men's shoulders or a wave of the hand that stops abruptly in a right angle. Some patterns, though not innovative, are beautifully reminiscent of Martha Graham's company exercising in the film The Dancer's World.

The space between Part I and II of Interim is like a line between two sides of a complementary-colored Ellsworth Kelly.

Another choreographer of the company, Manzell Senters, constructs a mood like Henri Rousseau's scenes in the jungle. Against the dark stage, whitish costumes emphasize body movement. There's mystery in the topicality of rhythm-an old African legend of a moth's metamorphosis into a maiden.

Passengers switches the emphasis from movement to space. Viola Farber is concerned with space in the same way the Bauhaus was concerned with space-the content of the painting had become secondary to the handling of forms. But Farber has added the dimension of comedy by a contradiction of her dancers as people and her dancers as objects. One minute the group is forming a geometric pattern with flexed arms and the feet and the next minute they are personified by someone muttering "ok" or pointing a finger at someone else's toe.

As if Edward Munch had painted his Cry before us-that is how the RDT ends the evening. Anna Sokolow's work, Steps of Silence -a poignant conflict of men-is as powerful as Munch's gnarled Bruke Cry. A powerful piece, a powerful performance: where the Repertory Dance Theatre has begun with the strong curves of the Baroque, they have ended with the social comment of the modernist.