Sculptor Elie Nadelman was a transplanted European who transformed the reality of American life into memorable art. On Tuesday night at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, the tables turned once more, as Junction Dance Theater filtered Nadelman's art through a dance theater piece called "i.e., harmony."

It is a work that was originally commissioned by the Frick Art Museum to coincide with a Nadelman exhibition there in 2001. Artistic director Melanie Miller wrote the text, choreographed and directed the piece, which draws many elements from Nadelman's life and art in a skillful, almost surrealistic fashion.

Miller used a cast of five including two actors -- a somewhat reserved Edward Snyder as Nadelman and Jamie McKittrick, who still needed a darker edge as the sassy Eva Tanguay, known as both "the girl who made vaudeville famous" and the "I Don't Care Girl." They would set up Nadelman's extraordinary tightrope walk between high and low art, which was carried out by dancers Adrianna Carey, Cheryl Carson and Mary Kate McLaughlin.

Miller included several pictures in the program that served as motifs, not only the "High Kicker," with her pink outfit and raised leg that was symbolic of Nadelman's fascination with dancers, but "Man in the Open Air," with the distinctive bowler hat and a tree that became a bass/guitar here, and "Standing Female Nude," which Miller embellished with a beige leotard and strategically placed bows.

With a rudimentary knowledge of Nadelman's background, it also was easy to spot the late-career figurines that inspired the lopsided choreography at the end, the "Tango" sculpture and dance, a brief mention of his classic tradition and the vaudeville that Nadelman so loved, and the high society that he hated.

Miller also incorporated Nadelman's inner confidence, his growing frustration and subsequent breakdown, where she symbolized his death by slowly closing a suitcase on the head of the "High Kicker."

All of these theatrical strokes were hauntingly staged, although the disco section, certainly as over-the-top as Nadelman's "Flapper Era," didn't register with out-of-place contemporary moves.

This was a production as delicately balanced as Nadelman's approach to his art and Miller provided an informative and engaging conduit to appreciate it all.