The choreography contrasts snakelike torso movements with sharp angular gestures to evoke states of emotional upheaval.

Two years ago she undertook a similar collaboration with Russell Maliphant, full of stark movements seemingly designed for the leggy Ms. Guillem, angular gestures and vivid lighting.

"Elimination," to chiming sounds by Doreen Bray and Josée Dandurand, was filled with abrupt, angular and apprehensive gestures.

Then, hopping brightly from side to side and emphasizing the angular gestures for the arms, Jean-Pierre Frohlich capered in the "Gigue."

The reviews, in turn, may have been an overreaction to unfamiliar angular gestures, which have a softer quality in famous photographs of the time by Baron Adolf de Meyer.

After all, that's just our Ben, self-deprecating and ingratiating, as he flexes his knees and elbows into exaggerated, angular gestures.

What made it interesting was not its drama, but the way its angular gestures recalled both German Expressionist paintings and Egyptian hieroglyphics.

There are declamatory, angular gestures that give some of the vocal lines an Expressionistic accent, but there are also hymn tunes and flights of lyricism.

Ms. Scott Thomas never lets us forget the calculating, defensive intelligence behind the ravenous vanity and angular theatrical gestures that summon the age of Duse and Bernhardt.