On the wings of music ranging from the baroque to the Beatles, the University Dance Company soared to inspired heights with a fall concert that attracted more than 800 area dance fans Friday evening to the Lied Center.

As the company has grown during the past decade, so too has its reputation. It wasn’t surprising, then, that there was an air of anxious expectation as the lights dimmed to make way for Willie Lenoir’s “Boyce and Girls.”

It was a perfect opener. Setting a septet of lithe beauties to the stirring trio sonatas of baroque composer William Boyce, Lenoir echoed the music’s contrapuntal lines in designs that seamlessly alternated among solos, duos, trios and ensembles. Hopping, skipping, running, leaping and twirling with abandon, Alison Badali, Morgan Fogarty, Annie Frazier, Holly Harmison, Jessica McCurry, Meggi Sweeney and Jessica Turner lifted the stage.

Show-stoppers

Jerel Hilding’s “Gitanas,” set to a sensuously Spanish-tinged guitar adaptation of a J. S. Bach lute suite, was a show-stopper. At once earthy and ethereal, the ballet’s seven women and three men flirted and partnered with panache. The graceful toe work of the women was particularly effective. So, too, were the ensembles in which the women’s synchronized movements gracefully unfolded. The ballet’s palpable sensuality was most evocatively underscored in a pas de deux whose exquisite partnering perfectly matched Bach’s entwined melodies.

A show-stopper of a contrasting kind was the solo performance by Patrick Suzeau of Muriel Cohan’s “Caligula” (1973). Although intended as a meditation on the Roman despot’s mad cruelty, the richly open-ended work might also be read as a quest for understanding or an existential scream worthy of Edvard Munch. Meanings aside, Suzeau’s virtuosic artistry, with its commanding array of macro-gestural leaps as well as micro-gestural hand and finger moves, was simply astonishing.

‘On the Brink of Time’

After intermission, Suzeau returned as choreographer of the poignantly wrought “On the Brink of Time” (1986), based on and including voice-over excerpts from poet Marc Kaminski’s “On the Road from Hiroshima.” Set to electronically enhanced Japanese folk music, which cast its own eerie spell, the hauntingly danced story of a man (Suzeau) who lost his wife to the atom-bombing of Hiroshima hit hard.

Next was Murial Cohan’s wonderfully staged “Rustic Songs” based on “A Cappella Choral Works” by Gyorgy Ligeti. Setting her 10 women and three men to frolic in the country, Cohan’s warmly etched youth darted and romanced with a gusto reminiscent of the Aaron Copland-Agnes DeMille collaboration for “Rodeo.” In part due to Ligeti’s choral music with its lusty embrace of the English madrigal, Cohan’s distinctive choreographic-musical signature made “Rustic Songs” a singular treat.

Conclusion

The evening concluded with guest choreographer Carl Corry’s “Pop Trio.” Working with his students and pumping up the volume, Corry’s collaborations included energetic and sexy settings of the Beatles’ “Let It Be,” Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” and Soraya’s “Reason to Believe.” Adding to the evening’s magic were Susan Rendall’s costumes and Ann Hause’s lighting.

It was a great night for dancing! Kudos to the 23 strong University Dance Company, and to their faculty mentors, Muriel Cohan, Janet Hamburg, Michelle Heffner Hayes, Jerel Hilding, Willie Lenoir and Patrick Suzeau!