MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : ASTURIAS, CASTAGNA

What LACE needs, if the downtown, contemporary exhibition space is to keep audiences from fleeing its hot and airless studio, is an impresario with a cane--someone who can yank performers off stage when they’ve failed to be reasonably stimulating.

That guideline would have been applicable Friday to Alvaro Asturias, who, together with John Castagna, presented performance pieces that resemble high school skits more than anything. Whether intentionally funny or quasi-mystical, his material remains inchoate, rambling on and bogging down in tedious trivia.

Too bad that Asturias, whose lyric qualities as a dancer show only in Castagna’s distinct choreography, doesn’t let his partner wield greater influence.

As it was, Castagna managed a striking contrast to Asturias in his solo “Territories.” Wearing a baggy bib overall and bushy mustache, he made wiry intensity a welcome relief.

And his “Beat Box,” an ensemble work, explored glitter funk bandstand dance while offering a high-energy, mechanistic style. Curiously, he could not rescue performer Lori DuPeron from her overly long portrayal of Modigliani’s mistress.

So long as script writer Asturias and choreographer Castagna stay in their respective slots, however, any real collaboration seems remote. Theirs is an arbitrary association, one that appears to have little artistic basis.