What makes Paul Taylor's dances so memorable is that they don't look or feel like choreography. They are built on a continuous flow of energy. His extraordinary dancers assert unique personalities without grandstanding.

Beyond solid technique, Taylor looks for dancers with zunch, a term he made up to describe the extra push, focus and fire that radiates from a dancer and surrounds the space and audience.

For the show at the Birch North Park Theatre, The Paul Taylor Dance Company performed three works with Taylor's inventive simplicity and complementary staging, and plenty of that magical something he calls zunch.

Presented by the La Jolla Music Society, the program was going to open with Public Domain (1968), which is also the title of Taylor's acclaimed autobiography. But there was a quick change to Esplanade (1975), the first piece he created after he stopped dancing. It is now an American classic. As the curtain rose, many in the sold-out crowd could hardly contain their excitement.

Inspired by a girl running to catch a bus, Esplanade is based on ordinary movements that build to a heart-pounding climax. In the first sections set to two Bach violin concertos, eight dancers run with clenched fists like track sprinters. They whirl into slides and falls like swimmers pounded by ocean waves.

As they rewind into lines, peel away and weave, their eye-pleasing forms conjure the circling reels of square dances.

Darker sections, with dramatic lighting by Jennifer Tipton, have dancers face-to-face, but never touching, to remind us of life's sadness and alienation. One woman is an outsider. Unlike the other women in sherbet colored skirts, she wears trousers like the men, but she stands tall, and another woman spirals to the floor at her feet. When a woman stands on her male partner, we sense the pain and sacrifice we must endure for love.

The final scene offers a pleasing sense of community and absolute trust. Dancers throw themselves into waiting arms and hold each other with great tenderness. Their gentle swings grow into wild spins, tumbles, and running leaps into each other's arms. In the end, one woman is left standing, triumphant with arms up, an image that makes you feel young and invincible.

Perhaps most remarkable about Taylor's work is the musicality. Much of Esplanade is choreographed to the same music as Balanchine's Concerto Barocco, but Taylor's movement is organic and allows you to actually see the music and hear it in a new way. Seeing it visually, you become more aware of the shifting tempos and uneven counts.

That also holds true in Promethean Fire (2002), set to Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor, Prelude in E-flat minor, and Chorale Prelude MBV 680. As the deep sound fills the space, there is an immediate sense of doom.

Many view the work as Taylor's response to the horrors of 9/11. One couple rises out of a writhing tower of bodies that slowly gathers strength. A group pitches forward and skitters low upon the floor. A powerful duet for Annemarie Mazzoni and Michael Trusnovec further affirms the human will to survive a catastrophe.

Santo Loquasto's costumes of black velvety unitards focus attention on the 16 dancers' beautiful sculpted bodies. The women don a halter neckline and sparkling earrings. The men are marked by squared shoulder straps. That nuance avoids androgyny and subtly suggests their fashionable personalities.

In sharp contrast, Loquasto's racy costumes for Piazzolla Calder convey the seedy culture of Tango nightclubs. Tipton's dim lighting sets a passionate tone and becomes part of the performance. When two wobbly men roll across the stage in a four-legged cartwheel, strands of lights begin to sway overhead to mimic their inebriated movement.

Set to music by Astor Piazzola and Jerzy Peterburshsky, this 1997 dance captures the essence of tango, but there isn't a real tango step in it. The partnering is steamy. Women sink into the splits. A few lifts border on erotic. The handsome cast moves in a circle, but lead and follow forms are distilled. This is an exciting work that makes the tango championships on PBS look tame.

Promethean Fire and Esplanade were surely the audience favorites, but all three works showcased the genius and versatility of Taylor and his vibrant cast. "Wheeeew!" a silver-haired man gasped in between each dance. "It all looks and feels so good!"

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