THE ARTS/CULTURAL DESK
Orneriness Deserves Its Laureate As Well

It took some time to get used to the world Chris Elam and his Misnomer Dance Theater created on Friday night at Joyce SoHo. Mr. Elam, a modern dancer trained in Indonesian traditional dance, sets inarticulate bodies adrift in unknowable situations and places. Eventually the un-self-conscious inarticulation of Mr. Elam's choreographic voice began to seem logical, even funny and poignant. His program notes speak of the ''rich histories'' bodies carry within them. Those histories began to push through after the evening's first two mystifying pieces, danced by Mr. Elam, Jocelyn Frost Tobias, Sarah Galender and the spunky, vivid Jennifer Harmer.

Playful affection flows from the two bumping creatures–half heifers, half preadolescent girls–of ''Dreams of Your Acceptance'' (Abbey Dehnert and Amber Sloan). Two more clearly human types skirt the edges of desire and romance in the lingering ''I'm Staying a Little Longer...'' (Mr. Elam and Andros Zins-Browne) and the charmingly pragmatic ''Match Making,'' in which Mr. Elam is joined by Maria Mavridou, another irresistibly vivid performer.

''Inabable'' (Julian Barnett, Adam Dulin, Ms. Harmer, Ms. Reed and Ms. Tobias), set to perfect lumbering music by Tom Waits, looks like a gathering of five newly gleeful Bosch hellions.

Relatively anonymous bodies grasp and spread through sequences of unlikely shapes in ''Misnomer'' (Ms. Dehnert, Nick Goldsmith, Ms. Reed and Ms. Sloan), a signature work in which no move can be even remotely anticipated.

The evening's other signature piece was ''Cast-Iron Crutches,'' a solo through which Mr. Elam moves slowly, contorted into a cramped globe of flesh and bones atop two legs.

Mr. Elam has a way of managing, somehow, to be simultaneously inarticulate and eloquent.