Soul Food, Sacramento/Black Art of Dance’s production at Solano Hall, was hearty dance dished up with intelligence and verve. The hour and a half performance delved into the meat and potatoes of the black experience, serving up a diverse collection of music, dance styles and emotions. Highly accessible, the show used the metaphor of food to provide a structure for the different works, creating a cohesive and engaging performance over all.

While the S/BAD production was slightly less than top professional, the audience benefited, as the dancers performed with vitality and immediacy. The nine piece performance ranged from spiritual mysticism to dramatic storytelling to hip-hop. However, Soul Food impressively maintained a storyline throughout.

Beginning with Soyinka Rahim’s solo piece, Spiritual Gumbo Pot, the show treated the audience to a yogic performance including live drumming and xylophone.

We then moved to Onely, Paul Besaw’s bluesy creation, with a quintet of synchronized female dancers and a particularly strong performance from Melinda McClain. Dubbed the “sweet potatoes” of the evening’s feast, the set and the mood, was suitably peach toned.

Soul Ingredients, Part II began to explore the particulars of the American Black experience. The dancers emerged with cotton work dresses performing various chores, moving to an exploration of Black historical dynamics and the piece concluded with Alice Coltrane’s haunting song “Stopover Bombay.” Choreographer Nathan Jones, along with guest performer Eric Vanielle, contributed a masculine perspective to the mostly female cast.

Next, Wali Neil came out to enchant us with a musical interlude. Soyinka Rahim returned to the stage to complement his mbira (thumb piano) on the flute. His acappella singing was a nice break to the largely recorded music.

Black Art of Dance memories were the key work of Soul Food. Dubbed “the dirty rice” for this section of the “meal,” it continued the discussion of labor and stratification that Soul Ingredients began. The piece was comprised of music by Kronos Quartet and poetry works and dance choreographed by James Atkinson. The poetry moved from “Enslaved” by Claude McKay to “Madam” by Langston Hughes, ending with “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou’s classic. Atkinson forced us to take an emotional view of the reality of oppression and sorrow experienced. The choreography was dramatic and strong, and the dancers passionate, but unfortunately some atheistic aspects took away from this key piece.

After a brief intermission, Nicole Manker’s Neckrawstalg utilized music by B.B. King and Eric Clapton to re-energize the audience. The dancers were tightly choreographed for this piece and the audience responded to the sexy, infectious tempo. It was a perfect intro for the hip-hop work, God Show Me the Way, by choreographer Noah Hayes. Missy Elliot’s voice elicited cheers from the audience when the lights came up on the black stage set. Once again, the cast was tightly coordinated and was well received by the audience of about 100.

For yet another change, actress Danielle Thrower sashayed out onto stage with disco’s famous Flashlight booming. Wearing high boots and hot pants, Thrower’s combination of attitude, afro and fur coat were perfect for this rendition of Topsy Washington from George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum.

The technically superior choreography of “Home,” by artistic director and Sacramento State professor Linda Goodrich ended the evening with some “peach cobbler.”

DanceSpace is a small and comfortable venue that allowed S/BAD to roam through decades, moods and themes effortlessly. Soul Food, prepared to feed your soul, dished up variety and spice while also challenging the audience to look at the whole story. Overall, the production fulfilled their promise: It was a thought provoking evening of nourishing performances.