Keigwin troupe brings wit and style to festival

DANCE REVIEW

KEIGWIN + COMPANY At: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, Thursday

www.jacobspillow.org

BECKET — In dance, a good laugh is hard to find. Too much absurdity, and a dance falls apart; too much cynicism and a dance loses its truth. Larry Keigwin, whose Keigwin + Company is performing at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, makes dances that are both quirky and sophisticated. In addition to the downtown dance scene in New York, Keigwin is no stranger to the fashion, club, and theater scenes; his wit reflects this hip world with craft, style, and restraint.

The 12 dancers of the 2009 “Megalopolis’’ are costumed by Fritz Masten in sleek unitards that sport a little glittery shimmer. This sartorial theme, together with Nicole Pearce’s lighting and some of the movement motifs, at times suggest an exotic aquarium, at others a fanciful aviary. A few MIA songs are thrown in with the Steve Reich composition — the dancers shaking it with deadpan allure — and though this thrills the young things in the audience, Keigwin’s tongue is firmly in his cheek, too much a craftsman to succumb to flash and trash.