Balance is the key concept of classical ballet. From the ballerina's struggle to maintain equilibrium while standing on the tip of her toes to the male dancer's controlled jumps, movement in ballet traditionally evolves around a vertical line.

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette This year Maria Caruso comissioned choreographer Johan Renvall to create a work for her Bodiography company. The dancers will perform it this weekend at the Byham Theater. Click photo for larger image. BODIOGRAPHY Where: Byham Theater, Downtown. When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets: $22-48, $15 student rush tickets half an hour before curtain; 412-456-6666.

By contrast, former American Ballet Theatre principal dancer and renowned choreographer Johan Renvall will present "classical ballet vocabulary taken off balance" in the first-ever commissioned work for Bodiography Contemporary Ballet. The new program, "Innovation," will feature Renvall's piece along with two new works by director Maria Caruso, "Solace" and "Love Lines," on Friday and Saturday at the Byham Theater, Downtown.

Caruso's mix of classical, modern and jazz styles is characterized by the crossing over of stylistic conventions, e.g., using pointe shoes for modern music and modern styles for classical music pieces.

Because of the multifaceted nature of her company, Caruso looks for flexible dancers. "As a director, I am working on having dancers who have a clean technique," she says. "I look for artistry and versatility."

Since founding Bodiography in 2000, Caruso has been working on improving her ensemble to create a group of dancers that fuse together perfectly. After incorporating new members recently, she feels pretty close to her ideal. "I am quite pleased with the dancers and the execution of all the material that we have presented the past season," she says.

Considering herself still a student of choreography, Caruso has decided to enhance her company's profile and her own choreographic range through commissioning choreographers from different dance genres. While modern dance expert Ze'eva Cohen, chair of the Princeton University dance department, is the choice for next season, Renvall with his more classical style was chosen to enrich Bodiography's program this spring.

"I am a great admirer of his choreography, of his movement," Caruso says. "Johan is a great mentor in the choreographic realm."

After meeting Renvall in 2000 at the Ballet Theater, where both had been teaching, the two choreographers stayed in touch when Caruso's company moved to Pittsburgh in 2002, leaving a branch behind in New York. Fascinated with the "organic, fluid style" of his choreographies, Caruso invited Renvall to be the first to choreograph for Bodiography besides herself.

"I was very pleased and quite honored when he accepted," she says.

As a principal dancer, Renvall enchanted audiences with his poetic style. "He had a wonderful kind of vulnerability on stage and a strong technique; something like an 'inner soul' that drew the eyes of the audience to him," remembers Marianna Tcherkassky, who preformed with Renvall at the American Ballet Theatre.

Renvall includes Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet," the Prince in "Nutcracker," Bronze Idol in "La Bayadere" and Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" among his favorite roles.

Being at his best in the works of Anthony Tudor with their subtle and psychological touch, Renvall's talent for the nuances that guided him through his career as a dancer also shows in his choreography, according to Tcherkassky.

"Because of his dramatic ability, his ballets have a theatrical flair which his audience enjoys," she says, also praising his deep musicality and his fine sense of humor.

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Choreographer Johan Renvall works with dancers at Bodiography in preparation for this weekend's performances. Click photo for larger image.

With Paul Taylor and William Forsythe as his choreographic models, Renvall composes his pieces the way he likes to move, "which is completely against my training," as he puts it. Through the use of counter-balance movements and modern elements, he challenges five female Bodiography dancers as well as two male dancers from New York, whom he has brought along for his work, "Again Fifth."

At the same time Renvall likes to challenge himself as a choreographer by making each piece he devises different from previous ones.

"I develop the choreography with the dancers," he says. "I see them try and watch what the dancer's body does. Later, I incorporate these movements."

In this sense, Renvall's choreographies are essentially not ideas, but processes. Even the overall theme of a piece surfaces only at its completion, when "it all falls into place." The title of his newest piece, for example, refers to the recurring structure of the "fifth position," the only classical element in the choreography.

"It makes us work to a depth as an ensemble," says Caruso, considering the challenge of the piece for her company. "We are building our dialogue."