SARASOTA -- Mikhail Baryshnikov has been keeping a low profile at the Ringling International Arts Festival, but since his New York pride and joy, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, was responsible for the programming, you knew there was going to be some exciting dance. And so there was with the world premiere of Busk, which marries street hoofers and hooded monks, Swedish chant and gypsy fiddle music, with a little Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatics and contortion thrown in for good measure. 

Busk was choreographed by Aszure Barton and members of her ensemble, and it is big work (37 minutes long) that opens with atrmospheric video imagery of trees, which soon gives way to bare stage. Things got off to a great start Thursday night with a bravura solo by the white-gloved Kyle Robinson, channeling his inner Bill "Bojangles'' Robinson and adding comic and sensual touches of his own.

In Busk's most vivid scene, the dancers wore monkish hooded robes and piled in a clump to a chant-like chorus (Sweden's amazing Orphei Drangar), moving their heads and hands in precise, witty choreography.

Barton, a Canadian who also had a work premiered by American Ballet Theatre in New York this week, has assembled a group of terrific dancers and given them lots of opportunity in Busk to strut their virtuoso stuff -- perhaps too much opportunity, as the piece felt a bit long at times. Still, everyone looked great in the rich lighting of Nicole Pearce. The lively gypsy music that makes up much of the score is by Lev 'Ljova' Zhurbin.

Two dancers I really liked were Emily Oldak, a muscular performer in white leotard whose solo included a contortionist's move (she was in Cirque's Love), and Banning Roberts, who wound up Busk by dancing a solo in a costume made from what looked like cellophane, which she tore off at the end, giving the audience a Bronx cheer.

Sharing the bill with Busk was Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar's The Snow Falls in Winter, which had more talking than dancing by the performers of OtherShore. For the most part, the point of it all eluded me, though Elizabeth DeMent's recitation of five things you need to know about writing a thank-you note was surprisingly poignant. 

Photo of Aszure Barton & Artists: Alex McKnight Photography