Rhapsody in Taps Performs Hines Work at Japan America : Dance: Energy, good humor and ensemble skill fail to sustain an evening-length show.

Despite bountiful energy, sunny good humor and well-honed ensemble skills, Rhapsody in Taps really doesn’t have the resources to sustain an evening-long program like the one they offered Friday night at the Japan America Theatre.

Maybe something’s amiss with the concept of an all-woman tap company, which can’t indulge in the theatrically effective gambit of teasing byplay between the sexes. Maybe tap just wasn’t meant to be performed by bodies that aren’t all small-boned and whippet-lithe. Or maybe the company’s lack of riveting personalities and virtuoso-level body control is to blame.

In any case, it was a long haul until the highlight of the evening, “Toeing the 3rd and Fifth,” a new piece set on the company by tap star Gregory Hines to music by Clayton Cameron.

From the opening moments, with the five dancers profiled in swooping side bends that fluttered up into a series of little jumps, Hines’ stress on forceful dynamic contrasts was evident.

Crisp turns and statue-like, off-balance poses punctuated crisp volleys of taps. Breezy unison movements suddenly stopped cold; brief solos evoked snappy comebacks from the other dancers. As in other program offerings, however, only company artistic Linda Sohl-Donnell mustered the requisite economy of movement and self-possessed stylishness.

Her Los Angeles premiere, “Raindance,” to music by Al (Tootie) Heath, was embroidered with a quasi-African theme. Dancers in midriff-revealing tops and harem pants squatted in wide-legged poses, swung their hips chastely and toted a couple of poles filled with pebbles.

This touch of sensuality was most welcome--as was the aural contrast of churning pebbles, primitive percussion instruments and tapping--but the piece meandered and the venture into earthiness needed lots more soul.

The only other moments of note occured in “Piru Bole”--a flavorful rhythmic conversation between tabla player M. B. Gordy and Sohl-Donnell’s taps, evocative of Indian kathak dance--and “Eddie’s Suite,” an occasion for indefatigable old-timer Eddie Brown to do his deceptively careless thing with feet that barely moved off the stage floor.