COMPANY’S FOUNDER STEPS OUT AS SOLOIST

Three’s company, but one will do--at least for this weekend’s Lo-Tec performances at Three’s Company and Dancers’ studio in Hillcrest. Founding member and co-artistic director Betzi Roe will make her debut as a solo dancer Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 p.m., when she performs a potpourri of her own new works, along with pieces commissioned from choreographers Laura Glen and Karen Goodman.

“This is a real first for me,” Roe said, with more than a touch of anxiety in her voice. “It’s the first time ever that I’ve done a solo concert.

“I’ve had young children that have kept me grounded, but there’s another reason why I never did anything alone. I love partnering--and I love men-and-women interactions. So I did quite a few duet concerts, but I never worked solo. Now that my children give me a little more freedom, I finally got myself to break away and do something on my own.”

A trip to New York to acquire a dance work from an ex-Alvin Ailey dancer provided the impetus for Roe to go it alone.

“We were working together for three days, and I felt his work wasn’t taking me in any new direction,” she said. “My work was much stronger. I felt guilty, but I couldn’t waste my time doing someone else’s choreography. I had to go with my Muse.”

Roe’s Muse came to her in the least likely place, during that April visit to the Big Apple.

“I was riding on the subway, and the staccato of the subway gave me an idea for a dance. ‘Side Track’ is a piece about ambivalence and indecision, and it has fast, rhythmic footwork,” she said. “There’s a quiet section too, but then it gets caught up again in a frenzy.”

Goodman, a Los Angeles choreographer who performed in Three’s Company’s Lo-Tec series last year, designed “Hard Feelings,” a duet Roe will dance with a “punked up” doll. It puts Roe on pointe for the first time in San Diego.

“I used to be a ballet dancer before I turned to modern, so it should be fun,” she said.

“Recipe,” an offbeat, comic romp, will have Roe reciting a recipe as she dances.

The only duet on the program is “Sequenza,” a dance juxtaposed with a vocalized score.

“The voice is used as an instrument,” she said. “It’s really very crazy, and I move minimalistically. Soprano Ann Chase, one of the best singers in town, will do the vocalization, and we’ll have incredibly beautiful gowns by a major clothes designer. I want (the piece) to be very pretty.”

The final dance on the program is a mixed bag of choreographic images culled from 13 different modern dancers in San Diego.