Anna Sokolow's 1955 work "Rooms" is not an easy dance to watch. It's intensely dark, and it focuses on isolation, alienation and loneliness. But to see the stark beauty of its steps and to feel the dance's wrenching honesty are rewarding enough to make it satisfying.

Presented Saturday at Dance Place by Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company, "Rooms" begins with nine dancers sitting in wooden chairs, staring blankly at the audience. To the sound of an eerie, wistful jazz score, they launch into a series of gestures -- violent slaps on the floor, frantic scurrying feet and breathless collapses of the torso. Though they're moving together, each dancer seems utterly alone. And that tone continues for the rest of the work. When the dancers touch one another, it is mechanical and impersonal, and even the most emotionally charged movements are sterilized to chilling effect by the dancers' empty expressions and seeming aimlessness.

Lorry May, a former Sokolow dancer who reconstructed and staged the work, deserves much of the credit for its effectiveness. She completely reprogrammed these contemporary dancers to capture Sokolow's early modern, Martha Graham-inflected movement style, and yet she gave them the freedom to interpret the steps with their own emotional sensibilities. May's coaching gave "Rooms" the authenticity and intimacy that make it so powerful.

The program also featured three classical Indian dances that were crisp, clear and expressive. Two modern-dance duets choreographed by artistic director Daniel Phoenix Singh were obviously about love, but timid dancing made these pieces feel tepid.

Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company
in Rooms              Photo: Stephen Baranovics