MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : KALMAN AT HOUSE

Martha Kalman must think that modern dance is child’s play: Two-thirds of this locally based dancer/choreographer’s Saturday program at the House either dealt with kiddie games and relationships, or else took a stance of childlike naivete.

Of her new work, “Rainy Day Games” cleverly adopted movement structures from well-known playground rituals and, by avoiding formal steps (like her group piece “Moving Fixations”), deftly camouflaged the performing limitations of her eight-member company.

“A Kiss to Build a Dream On,” however, was danced by Kalman herself and guest Ron Brown, so its slick mock-ballroom maneuvers undercut by comic sprawling reveled in their technical sophistication. Another cutesie romp, but at least of a different type.

In “Transformation,” Kalman clowned at length in a bulky, stretchy sweater, striking dramatic poses with one of the garment’s arms over her head. With “Hidden Voice,” though, she expected the same kind of poses to be taken seriously (this was a nominally adult piece)--but the emotional rhetoric seemed just as arbitrary and essentially bogus.

Kalman possesses immense theatrical savvy, but she cannot seem to create anything--only to manipulate what she finds somewhere. Her manipulations can be diverting, but never achieve the integrity of an original experience.

Also a Los Angeles premiere, Kelly Holt’s quartet “Sunbead” sought a supple, East-West vocabulary to complement its symphonic-raga accompaniment, but its difficulties left the dancers looking terminally clumsy and constricted.

Familiar works by Kalman and by Eddie Glickman completed the program.