MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : GLORIA NEWMAN

The Gloria Newman company’s 25th anniversary performance, Friday at Cal State Los Angeles, strikingly confirmed the qualities that have made Newman so important to the Southern California modern dance scene.

Based in Orange County (and still curiously neglected by its cultural Establishment), Newman is a pioneer and a force for excellence. Almost always using the most accessible movement materials for the highest creative purposes, she has remained open to experimental trends and techniques without compromising her professional standards of execution and her staunchly moral outlook.

Sponsored by the High School for the Arts, the program in the State Theatre demonstrated anew Newman’s surging physicality along with her seriousness of purpose. In “Departures” (1984), for instance, the sweeping scope, energetic incorporation of non-dance vocabularies (especially gymnastics) and deep affirmation of the individual that mark her work emerged through deliberately rough-hewn, remarkably spontaneous overlapping duets.

Partnering Karen Robertson, guest artist Rene Olivas Gubernick made the inventive, athletic body-sculpture look effortless, and the company as a whole also seldom failed to deliver vital, strongly grounded Newman-dancing.

The recent “Cantata, Part 1” proved more problematic. The incorporation of cast members’ spoken reminiscences (a la David Gordon) worked splendidly, but the breezy, faceless choreography in these passages didn’t supply any any new dimension or perspective.

Moreover, the intriguing focus on personal experience vanished in later segments: a group space-walk and a playful exploration of the surfaces of (and area between) two steep ramps. People we had come to know became mere pawns. Why? Maybe “Part 2” will explain.