A Dance Alloy concert these days comes with accoutrements, from a free spaghetti dinner to cupcakes and wine tastings. But where ballet icon George Balanchine ideally composed a concert according to appetizer, entr??e and dessert, Alloy artistic director Beth Corning builds her dance menu around a trio of weighty entrees.

Thus her programs are usually meaty and, in this case, full of protean emotions that were splayed wide open -- piercing, probing, uncomfortable and occasionally gentle. All were deftly "Exposed," which the current series at the New Hazlett Theater was titled.

This was not a concert of simple pleasures -- Corning is much more complex than that. Her concerts require a concentrated effort from the audience, who which can, with the right focus, double the impact from her wonderful company of dancers.

Corning's own premiere, "4-2 Men," which opened Friday night's program, began with a ritual of sorts as Stephanie Dumaine and Maribeth Maxa, both dressed in black, swept the stage and adjusted the curtains in preparation for the dance.

They slowly placed masks over their heads to conceal themselves, much like the puppeteers in Japan's bunraku style. But the puppets that they dragged into view were not only life-sized, but human as well.

The women began by manipulating the limbs of Christopher Bandy and Michael Walsh and went on to support, lift and guide their "puppets" through a journey. Bandy met the ethereal Adrienne Misko, called the "big girl" here as she swept in on Dumaine's shoulders, but also a woman on a platform, a mother figure, a first love and more. Walsh, the puppet/man, waltzed with a real puppet, a miniature doll-like figure with comically stiff arms and dangling feet.

It all moved toward a beautifully articulated, but unsentimental ending where the mechanically-inclined manipulator Dumaine revealed her loneliness and her own needs, even if her only solace was a puppet.

Those needs and the sense of ritual spilled over into an encore performance of Victoria Marks' "Dancing to Music," a short ensemble piece that began with a few low-key head nods, almost an abstract etude of minimalist gestures., but a The work that gradually grew in intimacy until it established a bond between four women dressed in black.

Zimbabwean artist Nora Chipaumire fed the chaos and strife of her African home into "becoming angels," another premiere that walked an uncomfortable tightrope between fear and a transcendent hope.

Once again ritual played a part in the opening canon, offered by five dancers in white who moved deliberately from spitting to caressing the crotch to praying in whispers.

There was no doubt that "angels" was African at its roots, with hips undulating, bodies vibrating and deliciously deep back bends, but these American dancers honestly immersed themselves in the richness that it had to offer.

Building on an evocative musical and natural soundscape by French composer Fabrice Bouillon-LaForest, the piece slowly evolved into something more heavenly, signaled by arms that slowly opened into angelic wingspans and ultimately conveyed a sense of rapture that slowly engulfed the performers.

Dance Alloy will repeat "Exposed" tonight at 7 p.m. with a complimentary wine tasting beginning at 5:30 p.m. Call 412-334-3209 or visit danceally.org.

Former Post-Gazette critic Jane Vranish can be reached at jvranish1@comcast.net.