As usual, the Arizona Dance Festival, which took place Friday at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts, debuted some singularly interesting pieces. As the dance season continues, they'll be performed in other places around town, so keep an eye out for them.

Among the most spectacular was Instinct Dancecorps' "A New Commandment," set to religious-themed chants by Thomas Tallis and Zbiginew Preisner. Eight female dancers explored the commonalities between religious and sexual ecstasy, in turns fleeing from each other in fear, crashing into each other in rage, then finally lifting one another aloft in communion.

To further illustrate choreographer Kimberly Karpanty's vision, the program quoted John 13:34-35, "A new commandment I give unto you, saith the Lord, that ye love one another as I have loved you." This is a sensitive, moving work that the Valley's dance lovers should check out.

Communion of a different sort was the focus of A Ludwig Dance Theatre's "He Says... She Says," choreographed by Ludwig. Set to music by Rachmaninoff, the piece perfectly illustrates the difficulties of love - or something like it. Dancers Candace Ammerman and Mark Ammernam performed a pas de deux which at first appeared to be simple love story, yet quickly revealed intriguing complexities. These two want each other, they don't. They lust, they feel aversion. They have nothing, they have the whole world.

The piece ends, of course, with them in each other's arms, in a moving, tender moment. "He Says... She Says," is one of those rare pieces where simplicity reigns, and the stunningly choreographed work is the better for it. Fortunately, Ludwig will be showing this piece around for the rest of the season, so you'll have a chance to see it.

And now for something completely different.

The Rayn Dance Theatre put wit into a sometimes too-serious program with Rayn Hookala's "Smoke," a stinging satire of people who just can't get over themselves. Using cigarettes for props, the 10 dancers styled and strutted, puffed and hacked. Hookala took a big chance by not using music to anchor her dancers - just a few smokers' coughs, and a hilarious group-gasp of Sinatra's immortal line "Doo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo." But it paid off. At the end, the audience was both laughing and cheering. Make sure to catch this next time it's presented.

Another troupe to keep your eye on is Calo Flamenco: Ballet de Martin Gaxiola. When we go out for a little flamenco, most of us are used to seeing just two or three dancers, but artistic director Gaxiola used an entire troupe for his "Nacimiento." Six musicians and nine dancers. And lots and lots of fire.

Possibly the most thought-provoking piece of the evening (whatever you do, don't miss seeing this) was Desert Dance Theatre's "Dancing the Malthusian," with choreography by Marion Kirk Jones. Don't worry. The fact that the work is designed around economist Thomas Robert Malthus's theories doesn't render it too-too at all.

Malthus wrote about the effects of over-population, and this piece illustrates that in spades. Eden in the beginning (two dancers, sweet as all get-out), chaos at the end (18 dancers fighting viciously for space). Forget the learned treatise's on Malthus - this terrific piece shows you all you need to know about the subject.