Pam Tanowitz's five take deceptively scattershot positions in the large performing area. A few hang back by the door. In the cleared out sanctuary Sunday, November 5, to music by Charles Wuorinen and Dan Siegler, they build a corkscrew tight structure, a rich drama of their movement and that of two company guests.

In "Pendant," to Siegler's electronic score, we are introduced to the vocabulary of clunky falls, weightless turns and jumps, group sashays, and sharp skittery responses to the music, which drives the dancers like a complex mechanism. For "The Blue Bamboula," Uta Takemura runs in front of the piano as Blair McMillen sits and plays a very spirited and dramatic rendition of the Wuorinen. Movements customized for each dancer evoke a range of emotions-from scurrilous to overzealous-like the clunky falls and sharp angular leg extensions for Melissa Toogood. William Petroni lifts featherweight Takemura and she clings to him. He carries her and she kicks her legs. In this position she entertains us with great integrity.

When Tanowitz references fallibility with the dancers' grace and precision, the result is poignant. Elsewhere, Petroni dances furtively behind a bleacher and we see only the top half of him, he invites us somewhat mischievously to read something into this.

If sometimes during the evening we wonder where it is all going, we end up thinking of it as one big adventure. Its motifs are more engaging with every repetition. The four works in the program ease into one another with transitions that are actually highlights.

For example, on red bleachers at the far end of the sanctuary the dancers sit at rigid attention. The lights (by Severn Clay) flash before guest Elizabeth Walker begins her amazing solo on pointe. She carries out a music stand first with the title "Grand Bamboula." We are at the ballet.

Walker holds her knee to her chest balancing on one ill-fated toe. She traverses the stage walking on pointe. Her performance is worried, pained. Her balance is fraught. She hugs her torso in chaînés turns and brushes the floor in a hasty rond de jambe. She is giving us the lowdown.

This is my introduction to Tanowitz's work with ballet dancers on pointe. She choreographed "Informal" in 2001 for Tom Gold and presented it at the Guggenheim. "Grand Bamboula" is riveting. Hello Miller Theater, Choreographic Institute. Please let's stop asking where the women ballet choreographers are.

Danspace performers use the St. Mark's sanctuary in many creative ways and Tanowitz's plan is 'less is more.' We sit on the wide stepped platform at the pulpit, continuing around the perimeter, the steps opposite us flank the foyer and are covered with red.

The dancers in the foreground liven the performing area proper with asymmetry, but in the distance a small group in the anteroom poses or moves slowly and without detail or nuance. They are more pedestrian, a blur. Beyond the focal plane, they interact in a smoky sfumato to my nearsighted eye. This evening we flick between the dance and the divertissement, deciding for ourselves. They are totally symbiotic.

Guest and Cunningham dancer Rashaun Mitchell's solo and duet with Stasia Blyskal is a joy to watch. He is the most expressive presence, serene and effective in Tanowitz's movement. Indeed he danced in this company before Cunningham's. Theresa Ling completes the cast of dancers whose assuredness projects Tanowitz's meaning.

Yukie Okuyama costumes everyone in black, different for each, in the elegant 2005 "Storage" to Wuorinen's "Five." Mitchell and Petroni's shirts are slit at the back creating an interesting skin-tone accent. The women's costumes for "The Blue Bamboula" are inelegant mini-skirts, open at the front. They look inhibiting and here Tanowitz's postmodern penchant gets in the way.

In a satisfyingly enigmatic end to the evening, to the triumphant "Five," everyone is down except Toogood and Petroni, who stand and meet at blackout.