Art of aging gracefully

Celebrated dancer-actor Mikhail Baryshnikov’s current tour may not be a valedictory. Certainly his fans, who are legion, hope not. But his “Solos With Piano or Not ... “ program, which opened Tuesday at Freud Playhouse, UCLA, as part of the ULCA Live series, has the earmarks of one.

It addresses the body’s aging, demonstrates the effort of theatrical preparation and execution, and makes allusions to past roles and past worlds. But, as Shakespeare put it, if much is taken away, much remains, and some of the old-geezer shtick is just that, a role put on and easily tossed off.

The tone was set by pianist Pedia Muzijevic, who prefaced each of the three dance solos created for Baryshnikov in the first half of the program with short pieces. He first played Scarlatti’s Sonata in F minor, K. 519, a sober, rhythmically driven work that suddenly -- in one of the composer’s typical inspirations -- bursts into fanfares of joy and liberation.

So too did Baryshnikov in Cesc Gelabert’s “In a Landscape,” which immediately followed, shift between effortful gesture (using one hand to assist the raising of the opposite elbow, or wiping his face as if to clear away sweat) and freedom of movement (springy jumps to the side). He danced the work to John Cage’s music of the same title, played by Muzijevic, who accompanied him sensitively here and throughout the first half.

Tere O’Connor’s “Indoor Man,” danced to David Jaggard’s “Elastic Tango” and Conlon Nancarrow’s “Tango?,” began rather oddly with Baryshnikov wearing a box that depicted a painted room over his head. But images suggesting Charlie Chaplin in “Limelight” began emerging: an actor putting on makeup and preparing for a performance executed, after the dancer took off the box, with cheeky aplomb.

Lucinda Childs’ “Opus One,” to Berg’s Sonata, Opus 1, gave the 56-year-old Baryshnikov many opportunities to show his still masterful ability to initiate and carry through kinetic impulses with strength, clarity and integrity in demanding turns, jumps and held positions.

If the first half of the program essentially was serious, the second, with two works choreographed by Eliot Feld to recorded music, was more jolly and immediately entertaining.

“Yazoo,” set to blues and jug-band music, presented Baryshnikov in a range of lowdown character roles, slyly referring to the vignettes in “Vestris” that Baryshnikov famously danced at the 1969 Moscow International Ballet Competition.

More overt -- if wicked, though lovable -- were the fleeting references in “Mr. XYZ” (music sung by Leon Redbone) to roles Baryshnikov has left enduring imprints on: Balanchine’s “Apollo” and “Prodigal Son” as well as Albrecht in “Giselle.” The work, which depicted Baryshnikov as an older man with a cane, was playfully sexy too.

Baryshnikov was generous in insisting that in addition to the superb Muzijevic, UCLA student dancers Julia Ferguson and Brett Featherstone, who appeared briefly in “Mr. XYZ” -- and the tech assistants too -- share his final bows.

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Mikhail Baryshnikov

Where: Freud Playhouse, UCLA campus, Westwood

When: Today through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m.

Price: $75-$100

Info: (310) 825-2102