The massively renovated Nazareth College Arts Center officially opened its doors last night with a black-tie gala and a program featuring some of the area's cultural heavy hitters. Rochester Children's Theatre, Rochester City Ballet, and Garth Fagan Dance - all artistic partners in residence at the revamped Arts Center - each took turns showing their stuff over an evening featuring some truly inspiring moments. But some troublesome execution proved that Nazareth still has some growing to do before it fully fits into its spiffy new space.

After cocktails and hobnobbing in the spacious new lobby spaces and art gallery, the performances kicked off in the overhauled Callahan Theater with Rochester Children's Theatre. The group reworked Stephen Sondheim's classic "Putting It Together" (from "Sunday in the Park with George") so that the lyrics directly referenced the Naz Arts Center's renovation process, giving the broad strokes of the story from roughly the past two years. From Naz President Daan Braveman's vision for the Arts Center to serve the area's need for a mid-sized theater, to the sponsorship of major donor Robert Sands of Constellation Brands, through to the skyrocketing price of iron and its effect on the project's budget, to the support of state politicians like Joe Robach and Jim Alessi, it was all there. Although the number lacked a bit of the pep the original song typically carries, it was a clever way to begin the evening. I especially appreciated RCT bringing in a bunch of students from the Naz theater department (which, Braveman pointed out later, was recently named the sixth-best theater department in the country by Princeton Review).

After Braveman made some brief remarks the program shifted to a screening of "The Best Seat in the House," a half-hour video production put together by Channel 10 that aired on the local NBC affiliate earlier this week. This was, in this critic's opinion, a missed opportunity for the Arts Center. A video detailing the history of the venue and the many exciting improvements it has just gone through was a great idea for a gala opening like this. However, "Best Seat in the House" was not that piece. It managed to be both too cursory and too repetitive to give an in-depth picture of just how much the venue has been transformed. It also ran nearly half an hour - longer than most (if not all) of the live performances that were supposed to be the highlight of the night, and it put a damper on the momentum of the evening. Most frustrating, it included an actual commercial for the very event we were attending. A shorter, more tightly focused package tailored to the audience at the gala would have been a more sophisticated way to go.

Rochester City Ballet took the stage next with a beautiful performance of "Bravo! Colorado - Alpine Gardens," a fairly traditional ballet piece by choreographer Jamey Leverett. The piece featured five dancers, including two leads - the program didn't specifically identify them, but I'm guessing they were Adam Kittelberger and Hayley Meier - who flat-out blew me away with their grace, beauty, and technique. They did some stunning partnering work in that number.

After a fairly lengthy break (more on that in a minute), the troupe came out with a second number, an excerpt from "LumaVoce," also choreographed by Leverett. The decidedly modern piece featured six dancers illuminated almost solely by hand-held flashlights. It's a cool idea and made for some dynamic visuals, but it was also problematic, as the smaller patches of light made it difficult to fully appreciate - or in some cases even see - the movements of the dancers. The concept worked best when the lights were pointed upstage, so that the dancers' shadows were cast on the white backdrop, creating intricate, undulating forms. But other times the lights were pointed directly at the audience, literally blinding when swung at the wrong level. And the score composed by Stephen Kennedy was at times physically painful to listen to, with ear-splitting squeals and nerve-rattling electronic washes.

RCB's pieces did, however, underscore just how incredible the Arts Center's new sound system is, as did the live performance by the Ying Quartet, which accompanied Garth Fagan Dance for the world premiere of the Nazareth-commissioned work, "Mudan 175/39." There were times where I could literally hear the bows being drawn across the strings of the renowned chamber group's instruments, even when they weren't producing a note. That is how clear the sound system is.

"Mudan" is a fascinating piece, both musically and choreographically. It features several movements, which vary from the percussive, urgent first section to more lyrical, languid, and even sensuous parts, like my personal favorite, the third movement. In that section, six members of the Fagan troupe - three women, three men - dressed in brightly colored full-body leotards struck pose after pose, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes independently, before pairing off, with the men moving the paralyzed women around as if they were sculpture. Toward the end of the movement two dancers remained on stage and performed an intricate, powerful series of movements that left me transfixed. The Fagan troupe came out for a second number, an excerpt from "Translation Transition" (2002), which was simply a joy to watch.

I would be remiss if I didn't note that, especially in "Mudan," it seemed as though several of the Fagan dancers were having difficulty with what was obviously very challenging choreography. Often in the work dancers were split into smaller groups tasked with performing moves nearly simultaneously, and several of the groups weren't quite together. That may have been Fagan's intention, I don't know for certain, but it was impossible to ignore. Even more than that, several dancers visibly struggled with holding some of the poses, which required intense strength and balance - I even caught a couple touching the floor for balance checks from time to time. I can't even imagine the physical exertion that goes into pulling off routines that intense, and for all I know Fagan may have been intending for the dancers to show their fatigue as part of the piece. But it was noticeable, and it took me out of the moment from time to time.

The new Arts Center stage and systems had a wonderful showing Saturday night, but the evening did have some issues. Specifically, nobody was running the show - literally. After the first number by Rochester City Ballet the curtain closed for several minutes (I'm assuming it was for costume changes) and the house lights came partially up. The audience naturally assumed that that was the sign for intermission, and the only indication that the first half was still ongoing came from the Naz staff members actually yelling "It's not intermission!" from their seats. A similar situation occurred after the first Fagan number, and the second GFD piece actually started with a good chunk of the audience out of their seats, thinking the show was over. An emcee would have gone a long way toward easing confusion, and making what should have been a glossy night run smoother.

Lastly, one of the great new improvements with the Arts Center stage is that it has considerably expanded wing space. I suspect the backstage crew isn't used to this yet, as from my seat, I could see multiple crew members standing right off stage for almost the entire evening, watching the action, listening on headsets, etc. One of the very first lessons I learned in the theater was, "If you can see the audience, the audience can see you." I suspect that's doubly true for the Nazareth Arts Center's unique stage configuration. We weren't even in one of the side-most sections (where I suspect the wings are almost fully visible) and the crew members still looked as though they were practically standing on stage during the first Rochester City Ballet number. But the space is new, they're still getting used to it. I'm sure they'll have it figured out in no time.

The Nazareth Arts Center's opening celebration is just getting started. For a full list of all of the events that are part of the weeklong celebration - many of them free - visit the Arts Center website.