For an Encore ...

You’d think you’d be able to find Alicia Keys’ dressing room at the Wiltern Theatre on the night after the Grammys just by listening for all the party noise. If there were ever a reason to celebrate, it’s after winning five Grammys, tying Lauryn Hill’s 1999 record for the most ever by a female artist in a single year.

But the long hallway leading to the dressing room was quiet before her sold-out concert Thursday. Inside the room, Keys was preparing for the show, seemingly the same way she does any other night on a tour that has been going almost nonstop since last summer.

The only references to Wednesday’s Grammys were the headlines on a stack of newspapers from around the country. The singer-songwriter’s mother, Terri Augello, picked them up at a local newsstand so she could check out the Grammy coverage.

Augello didn’t have to look far, because her daughter’s picture was on the front page of most of them. Her five victories, including best new artist and song of the year for “Fallin’,” upstaged even veteran rockers U2 and the massive “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack cast.

The low-key scene is typical, say members of Keys’ touring family, because the 21-year-old New Yorker is focused on music, not the accompanying glitter of the pop world. She stopped by the party hosted by her record company, BMG, for about 30 minutes after the Grammy ceremony, then headed to her hotel to get some rest.

Keys has been so busy touring and doing promotional chores since her debut album, “Songs in A Minor,” was released last summer that she has had only about three weeks off. But the young artist, who appears to be as disciplined and dedicated as she is gifted, used most of that time to work on new ideas in the recording studio.

“All the success has been wonderful, but I don’t want to get distracted from the music,” Keys said in her dressing room. “One thing that helps me is I have a close group around me.... My mom, my musical partners, my manager.... If I didn’t have them, I’d probably be a mess because things have been happening fast.”

After playing some shows in Europe this month, Keys will begin work on a new album in April, but her label, Clive Davis’ J Records, isn’t finished pushing singles from “Minor.”

One of the collection’s most dynamic tracks, a funky remake of Prince’s “Why Don’t U Call Me Anymore,” is expected to be released shortly in this country, while “Girlfriend,” a lighter R&B; exercise, will be the next single in Europe.

But that’s probably going to be the label’s last push for the album, which has sold 8 million copies worldwide and been in the U.S. top 20 since its release. Keys doesn’t want to overexpose herself on the radio or appear to be milking the recording. She’s already looking forward to her new music.

“I’m just at the beginning [of my career] and there are going to be a lot of expectations next time, but that doesn’t bother me,” she said. “I’ve got a million things I want to try on the album.”

Though Keys didn’t preview any new songs during her almost two-hour set, she and her 10-piece band, which included a turntablist and a three-piece horn section, did offer lots of new ideas in their treatment of the old songs.

The question with all young performers is the depth of their vision. You can have a great voice, captivating stage presence and even some disarming tunes, but it doesn’t mean a lot if you don’t have a strong sense of artistic imagination and drive.

From the opening moments of her showcase at the Roxy last May, Keys was a striking force, someone whose voice, songwriting, piano playing and stage command all caught your attention.

Best of all, she mixed contemporary hip-hop textures with soul music tradition in ways that seemed intriguing. Still, you couldn’t fully tell where she wanted to go musically.

In the album, she moved in sometimes conflicting directions--from the youthful, top 40 pop attitude of “Girlfriend” to the funky sensuality of the Prince tune to the neo-soul urgency of “Fallin’.”

The worry was that Keys could have no true musical compass, that she would simply move back and forth between musical textures--or that success with any one of them would make her concentrate on that style.

The revelation at Thursday’s concert (the first of two nights at the Wiltern) was that Keys appears to be well on her way to developing that personal vision. Whether introducing her version of Sting’s “Fragile” or reworking her own songs, she exhibited a dimension and depth that carried the stamp of a serious, rapidly maturing artist.

She and the musicians (including three backup singers) have reworked the album tunes, extending them with edgier and more passionate fibers. On record, “Rock Wit U” seemed annoyingly generic, but she and the band have turned it into a liberating workout. And her already striking rendition of the Prince song has become an even rowdier exercise.

Another sign of Keys’ confidence and ambition is the way she has even redesigned “Fallin’,” adding all sorts of dramatic punctuation rather than sticking with the more streamlined hit version.

In the show’s staging and in her manner, Keys also revealed a strong sense of theatrical flair, engaging in some “sisterly” talk with the audience and saluting her hip-hop street roots by performing in front of a tenement backdrop.

It’s always risky trying to predict which new artists have the talent and drive to be around for the long run, and the Grammy voters have often been burned. Remember the Starland Vocal Band? A Taste of Honey? Milli Vanilli? In Keys, however, it looks as if the voters can all take a deep breath. The best may be yet to come.