The Kansas University Dance Company performed the first of two fall concerts Thursday evening to a substantial house at the Lied Center. Varied styles in six dances showcased the choreographic skill of KU dance faculty as well as the versatility of the 23 student dancers.

The first number, “After the Harvest,” choreographed and costumed by instructor Willie Lenoir, featured three women in silver lame costumes, with a trumpet-and-guitar blues accompaniment. Their harvest celebration began with each of the three performing different steps, followed by synchronized movement of two and finally of all three.

Next was “Solea,” a splendid flamenco soledad choreographed by Miel Castagna and danced by associate professor Michelle Heffner Hayes. The selection began as guitarist Beau Bledsoe, a violinist, and Hayes, all seated, rose on the stage elevator into a smoky atmosphere. As the guitar played, Hayes rose in a striking fuchsia costume with a long pleated and ruffled skirt and began the precise and impassioned movements of the genre. At times stepping silently, at others with flamenco’s characteristic thunder of heels, she also executed beautifully the accompanying sinuous hand and arm movements.

“Baltic Sketches,” choreographed by associate professors Muriel Cohan and Patrick Suzeau, was set to a series of impressive Lithuanian chants. Suzeau, recently back from a Fulbright semester in Lithuania, had witnessed the summer solstice festival, Rasa, and this dance showed its celebration in a series of three sketches. Earth and sun were clearly celebrated, as the dancers rose from the ground and reached toward the sky in ecstatic postures and movements. The women’s costumes suggested flowers, with each in a differently colored monochromatic dress. The number concluded with a solo by Suzeau, spotlighted on a darkened stage. Suggesting the emergence, growth and flourishing of life from the earth, he uncoiled from the floor, writhed and reached toward the sun, displaying superb flexibility as he danced the luxuriance of life.

“Pas TrÃs Classique” followed the intermission. This was indeed a series of classic ballet steps, linked by choreographer Suzeau into a perfectly charming number, executed in short ballerina skirts by five lithe and very well-rehearsed young women. Sometimes singly, sometimes in pairs, often all together, they convincingly created ballet’s illusion of weightlessness, accompanied by Bartok violin duets.

Next came “Cradling Persephone,” choreographed and costumed by Michelle Heffner Hayes. The dance vividly enacts not only the Persephone myth, but the mystery of adolescence generally. The female dancers were seen first lying on the ground, then trying to rise, falling back, rising again. Dyadic pairs formed, and they lifted, supported, embraced and sheltered one another. Later, themes of eagerness and reluctance to face the unknown were shown, as the dancers advanced, ran away and returned.

The final number was Twyla Tharp’s 1971 “Torelli,” directed by associate professors Jerel Hilding and Patrick Suzeau. Tharp’s characteristic loose-limbed style was seen from the first, as the dancers stretched and swung their arms. Then, as Torelli’s Concerto in D Minor begins, the dancers – 13 in all – began to fill the stage with improvised variations on the eight movement phrases forming the work’s basis. Hopping, pelvis-thrusting, windmilling, spinning, they filled the stage in a kaleidoscopic spectacle, at times amusing, at times startling, always impressive. The piece’s length and complexity made it a tremendous challenge for the company, but the dancers were equal to the challenge.