MARTIN DANCERS AT EBONY SHOWCASE

For 10 years, the Martin Dancers have used the name of Lester Horton--the influential California modern dance pioneer who died in 1953--to distinguish itself from other small, struggling and not terribly accomplished local ensembles.

Sunday afternoon at the Ebony Showcase, it again sanctimoniously covered itself in Horton’s mantle--to the point of inviting Luba Perlin, a former Horton dancer, to speak of his achievements (while company members shifted scenery near her). Yet everything from the lively classroom technique demonstrations to the problematic formal works revealed the same lack of artistic integrity.

“Carnival” was a case in point. Set to a rhythmic percussion score by company musician Chris Walker, this extroverted, quasi-ethnic workout found seven dancers of varying security venturing high-velocity footwork while shaking sticks with streamers attached.

Some of the dancing looked like authentic Horton, some seemed only Horton - esque and much qualified as clumsy, scattershot pastiche. According to program notes, “Carnival” was “restaged” in 1978, “taken from the original 1950 choreography of ‘Frevo’ by Lester Horton,’ ” yet “adapted in 1984 by Shirley Martin and revised in 1985” and “not to be mistakenly claimed as an original restaging--but as an inspired work perceived by the present Martin Dancers.”

Clear? Horton’s legacy here was being both plundered and trashed. The Martin Dancers scavenged what it could use, discarded the rest and covered its tracks with a lot of bull about being “in the tradition of Lester Horton.”

Martin’s Expressionist dance drama “Visions . . . It Never Was” aimed for stark, assaultive power but fumbled or abandoned many of its key concepts--especially the menacing store-mannequins and their fascination with what looked like someone’s diary.

Oliver King partnered strongly and put genuine threat into his stiff-legged stalking. Virginia Corbin made all the nonsense with the diary momentarily arresting through her intensity and skill.

Once again, though, the hard-working jazz musicians--listed as Walker, Derf Reklaw, Roosevelt Mitchel and Pondaza--upheld a creative and technical standard that utterly outclassed the incoherent events and uneven performances on stage.