Can ballet be in your face?

It can at "Pure Ballet!," Madison Ballet's concert Friday night and Saturday at the Overture Center for the Arts. The performance collects short, modern, free-standing pieces.

"This is how you define a company," says artistic director W. Earle Smith. "You don't define a company by how they perform 'Nutcracker' or even a 'Cinderella,' for that matter. You judge them artistically based on this kind of work."

How to put it in a nice way? "Waltz of the Flowers " only goes so far in the dance world. In most big cities, productions of story-line classics pay the bills for gutsier repertoire work that is more artistically robust. Which isn 't to say that the classics are not as beloved by dancers as by audiences.

However, "Typically, these type of repertoire evenings are not money-makers, " says Smith. "So your full-length ballets, which are very popular, let you afford to do programming like this. "

It 's the second year Madison Ballet has offered "Pure Ballet! " But don 't take the title too literally. One of the highlighted surprises won 't be ballet at all. It will have ballet dancers, yes, but they 'll be performing "pure ass modern dance, " says guest choreographer Lisa Thurrell, artistic director for the modern Kanopy Dance Company.

Thurrell 's "Come Months, Come Away, " based on a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, was first performed by Kanopy in 1995.

"It 's a great way for some of the traditionally trained ballet dancers to kind of spread their wings and branch out more, really dig into the idea of a very classic, modern piece: low-gliding runs and suspensions and those kinds of things, " says Thurrell. "It 's been great for these dancers to stretch beyond their limits. "

Says Smith, "It 's a very beautiful piece. The dancers are loving it. "

Thurrell says she 's been tough, and keeping it purely modern. "This wasn 't a new piece of choreography where maybe I would be doing a blend, or some sort of modern/ballet work. I was actually pretty hard headed about it. "

Still, all dancers speak one language. "There is something universal that comes into play with all of it, " says Thurrell. "One key thing that happened -- I wasn 't too surprised -- a lot of the corrections that I was giving the dancers were the same things that Earle wanted to give them as well. "

The concert will also include three premieres of Smith 's own work. He finds it more satisfying than tried and true classical programming. "I grew up in the neo-classical world, where I rarely ever did story-line ballets, " he says. "So this is what I do. As a choreographer, this is what I enjoy most. "

The concert will be produced at Kanopy 's regular home, Overture 's Promenade Hall. For Madison Ballet, the space offers intimacy. Costumes, set and lighting will all be subtle, leaving the spotlight on movement.

Even the accompaniment brings dance to center stage. Marc Fink, oboist and professor of music at the UW-Madison will perform alongside pianist Marina Hegge for the final piece of the evening, "Concerto Veneto. " Hegge will also provide accompaniment for Bach 's "French Suite No. 3 in B minor. "

Another highlight will be "Spiegel im Spiegel, " choreographed by guest Dmitri Peskov. "Dmitri is on faculty at Beloit College, " says Smith, "The opportunity for us to collaborate choreographically is great. " The work features Nikki Wilson, who recently performed the title role in Madison Ballet 's "Peter Pan. "

That production 's Tinker Bell, critics ' darling Beth Heneghan, returns in "The Graces, " by guest choreographer Marlene Skog, of the UW dance program.

"I call it contemporary, but I think it 's just semantics, " says Smith. "It 's a contemporary piece with two dancers, and I would say it 's a little -- a little jarring. "

But that 's the whole point of "Pure Ballet!, " to push boundaries. "I think for the ballet diehards, they 're going to love this kind of program, " says Smith. "It is very rich in choreography. For audience members for whom this style of concert is a first time, this is a wonderful way to experience ballet and dance in a very different setting. Because of the intimacy of it, it is not intimidating at all. "

Says Thurrell, "It 's just a great way to give everybody a more creative, flowing experience, and to get more people from different audience quadrants looking at different things. "

IF YOU GO

What: "Pure Ballet!"

When: 7:30 Friday night, and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Promenade Hall of the Overture Center for the Arts, 201 State St.

Tickets: $25. For more information contact the box office, (608) 258-4141, or visit www.madisonballet.org