Some comedians talk about a sense of panic that kicks in before they go on stage, and that's understandable. Because they call themselves professional comedians, people expect them to be funny. Every time.

Maybe certain members of Dance Kaleidoscope have had queasy feelings about the company's current show. After all, it's called "Funny Feet," so the ensemble is essentially setting itself up for expectations that it be humorous.

The fact is, not every moment in this two-hour program choreographed by DK artistic director David Hochoy is a laugh riot, but then he clearly didn't intend every gesture to provoke belly laughs. What "Funny Feet" does is plumb comic potential from various combinations of music (classical, operetta, a touch of jazz) and movement influenced by everything from ballet to hints of certain comedians to modern dance pioneer Martha Graham.

"Funny Feet" features three large company pieces and a compact solo, each emphasizing different elements of humor.

Hochoy set "Merry Mozart" to an overture and lively opera arias including "La ci darem la mano" from "Don Giovanni," and most of the humor has a cerebral playfulness. In the middle of the fun is a contrasting serious moment, set to the slow movement from Mozart's Clarinet Concerto.

It's possible to appreciate "Merry Mozart" on different levels -- say, Hochoy's choreographic reactions to Mozartean accents or lifts, or the four contrasting duets pairing up Matthew Sparks and Liberty Harris, Kenoth Shane Patton and Melanie Schrieber, Tanner Hronek and Mariel Greenlee, and George Salinas and Jillian Godwin.

"G&S.com (A Gilbert & Sullivan Comedy)" from 1999, is set to tunes such as "Three Little Maids From School" from "The Mikado." Although removed from their original contexts, these are still character-driven pieces. But it does not seem necessary to know the G&S operettas to appreciate the humor in DK's dancing.

Some parts of "In the Moog," the program finale receiving its world premiere, might be seen as funny, meaning weird or offbeat. It's an abstract suite set to the keyboard music of J.S. Bach, as interpreted in the revolutionary 1968 album "Switched-On Bach."

Movement patterns rely heavily on linear sequences in the Bach, and on accents in the performance. As such, "In the Moog" is reminiscent of George Balanchine's appreciation of musical structure in his abstract ballets.

"Funny Feet" also incorporates "Hush," a sweet, upbeat solo that Hochoy set a few years ago on Brittany Edwards, now a DK company member, in time to a lullaby arranged by Bobby McFerrin.