The students of Bates Modern Dance Company are performing the works they have learned in repertory class this semester in a concert called Dance Briefs at the Schaeffer Theater this weekend.

As explained by Artistic Director Carol Dilley, several guest choreographers have spent a week or two with the group to “build a piece,” using their personal methods of choreography. Then Dilley hones the pieces to ready them for performance.

Filling out the program were a few short works performed by outsiders to the group, sometimes even outsiders to dance, including members of the rowing team.

The challenge with setting dances on nonprofessionals is to choose movements that are not outside their ability. In this the choreographers were largely successful. The weakest work was perhaps the opener, Demanding Meredith, which is arranged as a structured improvisation. It takes a lot of work to make this kind of work flow in performance, as the dancers must have a sixth sense about each other, just as a jazz quartet must work together to keep four separate musicians sounding like a unified whole.

Mostly, the dancers missed taking the time to fulfill each move before proceeding to the next, which can help create a more seamless movement phrase.

There were few bravura moments, but the dancers often achieved a unified strength and sweetness. In their final – and strongest – work, As If, they achieved a reverence and sense of beauty in nurturing one another. Many also got to reveal some lovely technique. Here the movements were definitely fulfilled.

Senior Yuzo Yamazaki and staff member Marlo Welsh created a wonderful moment in Yamazaki’s piece Between One. When a man and woman dance together onstage, it is easy to imagine it as a love duet, but these two were no Sugar Plum and Cavalier. They were equals, together in power, together in support, and very exciting to watch. They ended all too soon, leaving room to develop the piece more in the future.

The final male soloist, Alexander Smith, transformed the bare stage into a field of tension. It is a commendable goal in a dance performance to change the space, and in so doing, command the attention of the audience. In this, all the dancers were pros.

Dance Briefs continues in performance today at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Schaeffer Theater. Tickets are $6 adult/$3 student.

Sharon Hawkes has more than 20 years of experience as a dancer, choreographer and teacher in New York, Connecticut and Arizona. She is a resident of Auburn.