DURHAM - At this weekend's American Dance Festival, audiences may come for the ever-popular Paul Taylor Dance Company but will leave more impressed with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet.

This young company, just into its second decade, brings exciting vibrancy and striking precision to its ADF debut. True, its two selections are from choreographer Twyla Tharp's top drawer, but the dancers go beyond mere replication, their joy and verve making the pieces their own.

"Sinatra Suite" is Tharp's 1984 showpiece about a ballroom dance couple's brief attraction, interaction and disconnection over the course of five songs from "Ol' Blue Eyes." Katie Dehler in an elegant Oscar de la Renta dress and Seth DelGrasso in standard tux move seamlessly together, first in sharp tango steps, then in sensuous lifts and close-contact turns.

Dehler rivets with spectacular control, balancing in near-impossible positions. DelGrasso gets his due in a poignant solo of regret soothed over with alcohol.

Before that jewel-like performance, the full company energizes the stage with "Sweet Fields," Tharp's 1996 piece to Shaker hymns. The dancers are seductive in their lingerie-like white costumes, countered by their uplifting, reverent responses to the mesmerizing singing.

Their movements are sometimes ritualistically solemn, sometimes exuberantly blissful. The piece has a wonderful dichotomy of old-new, light-dark, simple-complex. The dancers' geometric exactness and palpable warmth give the performance thrilling impact.

This is in stark contrast to Taylor's "Changes," made for the San Francisco Ballet earlier this year. The piece uses 1960s music from John Phillips, John Hartford and Lennon-McCartney, with dancers in bell bottoms, headbands and tie-dye. The choreographer's notes equate that earlier period to today's, with the same need to question political decisions.

Given Taylor's darkly intriguing pieces about the U.S. (think "Big Bertha" or "Company B"), "Changes" disappoints. Expectation of something provocative or enigmatic is unfulfilled in what seems a mere re-creation of period dance moves layered with references to drug use and free love.

Only the incongruous "Dancing Bear," in which Francisco Graciano in footed pajamas is comforted in a dream by bearskin-clad James Sampson, gives off some emotion and character. Otherwise, the dancers seem imprecise and under-spirited.

Taylor's 1956 "3 Epitaphs" still amuses with its hooded, mirrored creatures struggling toward some higher purpose but failing in their bumbling listlessness. And his 2002 "Promethean Fire" is Taylor at near best, the swirling patterns and architectural groupings beautifully matched to orchestrated Bach, with a gratifying underpinning of triumph against adversity.

This program is definitely a crowd-pleaser, if not the most satisfying to dance mavens looking for meatier fare. Kudos to Taylor for longevity and to Aspen Santa Fe for joining the ADF elite.

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