Anne-Marie Mulgrew and dancers mine past and present

Anne-Marie Mulgrew has kept her company, AMM&DCO, going for 29 years. Looking forward to its 30th, Mulgrew called this weekend's Christ Church Neighborhood House program "From the Vault." The program begins with a new work, The Next Chapter, and ends with From the Vault, a compendium of concepts from previous works.

Guest artist An Exosphere Project - a collective including choreographer/dancer Ashley Searles and videographer Wim Winklewagen - explores the possibilities in dance. Searles soloed in their piece, Process Apparatus, to recordings of radio waves from the sun and Saturn and to video of her dancing the same dance in her studio. While oscillating her core body with striking sinuosity, she boldly commanded her limbs with stopwatch precision.

Mulgrew's piece Next Chapter has all seven of the current company in black. The first section, "lush," was marked by floor-work movement such as rolling or squirming like eels. Another section had two very fine young dancers, Megan Wilson-Stern and Kate Rast, diagonally opposing each other's trajectories in abrupt twists and turns.

Visual artist Rob Solomon's concept for The Red Riding Hood Project began well, with a video of three readers of the fairy tale in German, French, and English. Originally conceived as a site-specific work for the Race Street Pier, a métier in which Mulgrew has considerable expertise, in this venue it is too literal and compacted to create either charm or terror.

In red hoods and capes, the seven "inhabit the psyche of the young girl as she moves from innocence to self-awareness," according to the program. Instead, I was reminded of another fairy-tale featuring seven. Composer Adam Vidiksis' percussive electronics add some atmospheric suspense. But the movement is too predictable and the costumes (by an unnamed designer) too ludicrous and droopy to take this where it needs to go. And really, ending with the dancers whispering "The big bad wolf"?

Along with the selections for From the Vault, this program does not convincingly promise a next chapter.