TROUPE TO DANCE MIX OF WORKS

Most modern dance companies perform only works created by their founding directors, but not the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. This Salt Lake City-based ensemble--founded in 1969--stands out for performing works by a variety of choreographers.

In a program tonight at Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton, the company will dance “Physalia” by Moses Pendleton and Alison Chase (founding members of Pilobolus Dance Theater and Momix); “Proximities” by Murray Louis; “Little Kings” by Tandy Beal, and two works by the company’s co-artistic directors: “Couples” by Shirley Ririe and “Departures” by Joan Woodbury.

“Shirley and I used to choreograph all the works we performed,” Woodbury said from Salt Lake City in a recent phone interview. “But we felt it would be exciting to bring in guest choreographers so that the dancers could dance in new ways. So, as we could afford it, we’ve invited other choreographers to give us works we’ve seen and liked, or to choreograph new works.”

The directors’ search for new material has taken them--and the company--around the country. The company, in fact, bills itself as the “most traveled dance company in America.” It has performed in all 50 states and was the first American modern dance troupe to tour throughout the People’s Republic of China in 1983.

Supported by revenue from ticket sales as well as grants, the company also has earned a major reputation in the field of dance for children by teaching at grade schools through colleges. The company includes major productions for children in its repertory.

The dances on tonight’s bill, however, are aimed at a more sophisticated audience. They range from pure movement works to theatrical pieces and require the six company members to assume a different performance style for each work.

Pendleton and Alison, for instance, created for the company in 1977 “Physalia”--”a very beautiful abstract work that sets up evocative images and shapes,” Woodbury said.

When the guest choreographers first arrived at the company’s Utah studio, Woodbury recalled, “they didn’t know what they wanted to do, so we began exploring movements like running, rolling and working together in groups to make shapes.

“They were able to draw images out of things I thought were mundane. It soon became clear that this piece really had something to do with the ocean and the sea.”

Pendleton found the title--which refers to sea creatures like the Portuguese man-of-war--by looking through a dictionary, Woodbury said.

In describing the rest of the program Woodbury described Louis’ “Proximities” as “a pure movement piece that reflects the movements of the music” (Brahms’ Serenade No. 2 in A). “It was a Valentine’s gift Louis gave to his own company (in 1969).”

Woodbury called “Little Kings” (choreography by Santa Cruz-based Tandy Beal whose works are known for their drive, imagination and theatricality) “a theater piece about power--with a bit of an irony about people who wield and seek power and what happens to them.”

“There’s a punch line at the end, which I don’t want to give away,” Woodbury said.

Ririe’s “Couples” is “a dance about relationships” and Woodbury’s “Departures” reflects “a little image of death in those moments of departure that occur in every relationship.”

Though Woodbury studied with such giants in modern dance as Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, she nonetheless traces her spiritual heritage to the tradition of Mary Wigman, Hanya Holm, and Alwin Nikolais--a tradition which, in her words, puts emphasis on “conceptual ways of thinking, rather than on particular stylistic forms.”

“Rather than trying to look like something--a particular movement shape as you do in the choreography of Graham--you try to make things happen and be uniquely your own personality,” she said.

“We don’t do heavily extremely dramatic works or story ballets. And we don’t consider ourselves a postmodern company. We’re very accessible to audiences--but a sophisticated audience would feel satisfied.”

Woodbury and Ririe built tonight’s program around one of their former company members, Robin Johnson, who left the company in 1980 to become an associate professor in dance at Cal State Fullerton. The college is sponsoring the company’s two-day residency, as well as tonight’s performance.

Johnson will join the company tonight in “Physalia” and “Proximities,” works he originally danced.

Johnson said of the reunion: “This is something I’ve been looking forward to for about a year, ever since we knew the company would be coming. But I’m a little nervous. Lynn Topovski, assistant company director, flew in Wednesday to help me rehearse so that I’d be as prepared as I can be. But it’s going to be a very festive occasion. We’re really feeling that.”