DURHAM - After 53 years and a repertoire of 125 pieces, most choreographers would have expressed everything they had to say. But Paul Taylor still has intriguing new ideas to offer, as proved in Thursday's premiere of "De Suenos (Of Dreams)" at the American Dance Festival.

Taylor's works fall into two general categories, light and dark. Thursday's premiere of "De Suenos" fits the latter, although it's more colorful and humorous than many of his deeper meditations on mankind's ills.

At first, with Amy Young in traditional Mexican white skirt and blouse, selling flowers while dancing idyllically to Mexican folk music, we easily might be at a Ballet Folkl-rico production. But despite all the sweetness and light, we know to expect something more.

It comes as someone steals Young's flowers, sending her into a sudden, neck-twisting nightmare, conjuring up cultural images that blend and collide. A sinister man in black (Richard Chen See) carries a big pink skull, which passers-by lick like an ice-cream cone. A golden Lady of Guadeloupe figure (Laura Halzack) tippy-toes a path followed by crawling supplicants. A Yaqui stag dancer with antlers and maracas (Michael Trusnovec) is hunted and shot. A group of street toughs rough up a male transvestite (Robert Kleinendorst). The piece ends with the dancers forming a human carousel from which different pairs peel off to enact a pose, one dancer cowing before the other, who raises a machete.

Danced against a black-and-white landscape of skulls and to Mexican music of every style, the piece plays out like a Day of the Dead celebration crossed with a Catholic feast day pageant. This "dream" can be interpreted in many ways, from a send-up of tourist images of Mexico to the country's inner conflicts with religion, ethnic subgroups and ingrained superstitions. While not as disturbing or gripping as "Sunset," "Big Bertha" or some of Taylor's other dark works, it still bristles with the choreographer's signature ability to combine dance movement with vivid character and commentary.

In the ADF program, the new piece serves as divider between two of Taylor's most felicitous and beloved dances. His 1981 "Arden Court" is balletic and formal, mirroring the bracing excerpts from William Boyce symphonies that accompany the graceful yet exuberant patterns and combinations. Six male dancers whiz through intricate, complicated steps -- leaping, bouncing, running -- followed around by three female dancers who seem as spellbound as the audience by their dazzling feats. This may be Taylor's most purely beautiful work.

The program ends with Taylor's crowd pleaser, "Esplanade." From its first performance in 1975, its natural-looking movements, well-fitted to Bach violin concerto movements, have communicated the sheer joy of dance. The dancers tear about ecstatically, jump into one another's arms with abandon and fearlessly throw themselves across the floor. It's not uncommon to see audience members twirling and leaping as they leave the auditorium after this involving masterpiece.

Taylor is still tops and still the best introduction to the full glories of modern dance.