The troupe opened its season at the Kimmel Center Thursday night with a program that includes a world premiere, a cameo appearance, and a celebration of women's derrieres.

Companies and choreographers all over the world have tackled Bolero, with varying degrees of success. Indeed, Philadanco's is the second new version in Philadelphia in just four months (BalletX premiered one in July). But the music is so well-known and loaded with expectation that it can be a minefield to choreograph.

For the anniversary, Christopher Huggins created a beautiful, classy Bolero full of personality and risky moves. Much of the piece is a series of duets that require great flexibility, balance, control, and trust, as the men stretch, twist, and throw their partners. The piece is set at a club, and bits of tango are worked into the balletic choreography. There's a controlling woman, the one who needs to be held, and lots of macho men eager to strut their stuff.

It's a richly textured dance, but it's not perfect, failing as it does to build and develop at the same rate as the music. And while the dancers came through physically on Thursday, they were not nearly as emotionally invested. Facial expressions were often forgotten.

Joan Myers Brown, Philadanco's founder and artistic director, makes a rare on-stage appearance in Jawole Willa Jo Zollar's Batty Moves. The nearly 78-year-old Myers Brown shimmies and shakes her booty with her female dancers in a sleek black dress and heels. The piece gives the audience permission to stare at women's backsides. In fact, it even demands it - to drive the point home, one dancer, Chloe O. Davis, wears a skirt with a sort of target on the seat.

The men get their turn to show off in George Faison's exhilarating full-company piece Suite Otis, set to the music of Otis Redding.

After four decades, Philadanco looks mature, but current and cutting-edge. It is truly a gem on the city's arts scene.

Perhaps 40 really is the new 20.

Additional performances: