'Angels' dancers excel

In "Diversion of Angels," choreographed by Martha Graham, the term "head over heals in love" comes to life as male dancers perform impeccable cartwheels and women cavort happily in red, white and yellow dresses, luring their lovers.

However, the hit of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Tuesday's season-opener for the Charleston Concert Association, was Graham's 1947 work "Errand into the Maze," danced to music composed by Gian Carlo Menotti.

Dancers Blakeley White-McGuire and Lloyd Knight brought a dynamic narrative to this seminal piece in which Graham dared to substitute a heroine, Adriadne, for a hero.

Loosely derived from the myth of Theseus, who journeys into a labyrinth to conquer an evil Minotaur, this dance substitutes a female, danced by White-McGuire, in a long beige dress.

White-McGuire also shows she's an actress, as real fear shows in her eyes when confronting the half-man, half-beast, dynamically danced by Knight. At one point Adriadne appears defeated, yet when she finally triumphs she is not ashamed to celebrate her victory.

Films from the early 1900s showing a young Graham performing ground-breaking work with modern dance pioneers Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn opened the concert.

It was exhilarating to see Graham's company here after a 16-year absence, and to be reminded of the huge talent of a woman who truly believed in "the dance of life."