"Le Grand Continental" at South Street Seaport The River to River Festival Web site makes a point of linking its free events to its city. Its tag line says: "Made in New York. Inspired by New York. And this week there will be several works by New York choreographers that promise to offer intriguing responses to that statement. Le Grand Continental, by the Montreal choreographer Sylvain Émard, was presented at the South Street Seaport on Friday as part of the River to River Festival. But these are tenuous claims when it comes to one of the festival's early dance offerings, "Le Grand Continental," by the Montreal choreographer Sylvain Émard. The concept for this large-scale work originated in Montreal in 2009 and has since traveled to Mexico City. Any metropolis, it seems, could have its own version; what, then, is particularly New York about this production, which opened Friday night (just after a dramatic thunderstorm) at the South Street Seaport? True, the diverse cast features almost 150 New Yorkers. Most of them are amateur dancers, and they are delightful to watch. It's particularly enjoyable to speculate about how these individuals may practice movement: social dance, yoga or, for some of the most endearingly maladroit, couch surfing? And the shy, flirtatious smiles many of them presented to the audience were absolutely winning. But the dancers were far more engaging than the simple phrases they executed while in a large rectangular grid. There is a long history of choreography for nonprofessional dancers. Friday night I was reminded of Deborah Hay's "Ten Circle Dances." Created in the 1970s, those large-scale works were made so that there were no observers, only participants. Would "Le Grand Continental," which was presented by the Joyce Theater Foundation and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, have more meaning if everyone present was part of the action? Perhaps. From this spectator's vantage point the excitement seemed to lie in the doing, not the observing. Mr. Émard's choreography, a modern-dance extrapolation of line dancing, doesn't suggest any specific location (nor does the score, a mash-up of various styles by several sound designers). More to the point, and more disappointingly, "Le Grand Continental" never truly uses the Seaport; this is site-specific work that could happen anywhere, inside or out. The neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan have such distinct histories and constituencies; shouldn't a festival led by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council honor, or at least acknowledge, these realities? The River to River Festival runs through July 15 at locations in Lower Manhattan; rivertorivernyc.com.