Human-animal behavior was also on display in Chris Elam’s premiere, “Toes of a Snail,” whose very title confounds the two realms. Its most spectacular passage was a pas de deux for a bird of paradise and a nerdy boy, danced like a mythical rite of spring by Jennifer Harmer, in a blue leotard decked in feathers, and Adam Scher, in white shirt and bow tie. The action is an initiation into the ways of nature, a mating dance that scrupulously avoids any romantic or sentimental gestures. She circles him, mesmerizes him, ensnares and entangles him, and then serenely leaves, to be replaced by another female, this one in a skirt and sweater, but with a few symbolic feathers attached. The ensuing hot duet for Brynne Billingsley and Scher adds the element of human pleasure, but never loses the primal motivation.

The live sound score by Rob Erickson mixes meows and clucks with babies’ cries and guitar riffs, kind of an electronic barnyard. It suits the action, which seems to be a benign transmission of instinctive behavior. Dancers pair off, the dominant partner instructing, scolding, sympathizing, modeling, dragging the other around when all else fails. Though it’s strictly utilitarian, there’s something friendly and sweet about the process. This is the charm in Elam’s work, the sense of a peacable kingdom. Another premiere on the bill was a duet for Elam himself and the heavenly Harmer, he skinny and dark, she voluptuous and blond, in pants and identical striped shirts. It’s called “Fill in the Blank,” and the action recalls Aristophanes’ theory of love in Plato’s Symposium—love is a divided self searching for its missing other half, the half that can make it whole. In this case it was a hyperactive, quirky, demanding guy, finding a woman so strong and pliable that he can kneel on her, cling to her, and in the end roll himself into a ball with her. They exit head-over-heels in a double somersault, inseparable at last.