The soul of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company was painted across the stage of the Kravis Center's Rinker Playhouse Dec. 13. The energized dancers crisscrossed the stage with broad strokes; the performance was satisfying and exciting.

Of the three works presented in the program, JLawrence Paint (Harriet Tubman Remix) was the highlight. Its creator, Donald Byrd, the highly respected choreographer, was inspired by Jacob Lawrence, the African-American painter whose well-known works depict the migration to the North, and the Underground Railroad.

Art does inspire other art; but how would visual art, which is caught in two dimensions, inspire a visual art that moves in three? How could the frozen moments of Jacob Lawrence's paintings connect with the fluid moments of choreography? What would the canvas of the stage add to the stories on Lawrence's canvases that are already so poignantly depicted?

Donald Byrd's result was masterful, expertly constructed, and beautifully danced. In his paintings, Jacob Lawrence left much to our interpretation and our imagination. But it seemed Byrd was intent that we feel the human energy, the human condition, that the dancers brought to life onstage. Moving in three dimensions, the dance pulsed with life.

A program such as this, where the soul of a dance company is painted across the stage, is a testament to the programming that brings a troupe such as the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company here.

Tara Mitton Catao founded a dance company in Chicago, which she directed for 14 years. She is a resident choreographer and modern dance teacher at Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton and one of the judges for the Youth America Grand Prix Ballet Competition.