The small Tacoma School of the Arts theater was packed, and after "MOVE! Tacoma Contemporary Dance Series" one of the performers apologized for flinging sweat on the audience.  While I didn’t get any fluids flung on my person, I did enjoy a physically and emotionally riveting show of what ballet can look like when a talented and experienced group of choreographers and performers push its boundaries.

Last night's highlights were varied and frequent, from the energy, spirit, and geometry in motion of the Tacoma School of the Art’s Dance Company’s “Birds,” choreographed by Kate Monthy; to Josh Reisberg’s spoken word stylings celebrating dance and Tacoma; to the Maika Misumi Dance Troupe’s use of many, many yards of fabric, and slow, studied steps exploding into vibrant physicality; to Joel Myers’ emotional solo based on experiences dealing with his fathers death, set to Moby’s "Goodbye" and featuring local fashion-wunderkind Daniel Blue’s Loyalty Clothing; to the Tacoma Dance Collective’s “Nightflight,” a black-lit journey through the life of a luna moth and the moths it relates to; to the Zoe Scofield/Juniper Shuey excerpt from "Find Your Way Out," where Kate Monthy and Zoe Scofield showed their stuff in an expressive, impressive feat of footwork.

A few of the dancers returned in danielandsomesuperfriends’ “Out of the Dust,” a trip through the psyche of a young person’s mind.  This marathon of a piece explored the dynamic side of ballet, with many of the groupings of people and physical forms on stage giving props to the formal side of ballet, but with a smattering of break-dance and acrobatic moves set to music that was most definitely not Tchaikovsky. This dance, as combined with the whole evening, seemed to reflect to me the diversity and excitement that MLKBallet will bring to the dance scene, encompassing the formal elements of the dance with stylistic props to T-Town.

We all headed to Tempest Lounge after the show, where the dancers were finally able to feed themselves â€" they performed at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and couldn’t eat between shows â€" the physical nature of their dancing would have led to cramps like your mom always warned you about.  Tempest was buzzing with Pappi Swarner in attendance, along with his crew of witty fun people who made me laugh much; Natasha and her fabulous shoes made an appearance with Larry in tow â€" not working â€" and whisked us to the Monsoon Room. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler