ISO: Chips Off Old Communal Block

New name, same faces. Daniel Ezralow, Morleigh Steinberg, Jamey Hampton and Ashley Roland used to perform as Momix. That was five years ago, when Pilobolus, the dancing acrobats, went through a cell-division process and several new groups emerged.

But Momix has undergone its own kind of cell division. And now, these four members of the original quartet have split off and boast an independent identity: ISO.

“We’re not too picky about how you define the acronym,” says Ezralow, crammed into the booth of a Beverly Hills restaurant with his three tousle-haired cohorts.

“Try ‘I’m So Optimistic,’ ” suggests Roland. “Or ‘I’m So Obnoxious,’ ” chimes in Hampton. “Or ‘Overworked’ or ‘Obscene,’ ” pipes up Steinberg. Failing all those definitions, the public could simply think of ISO as the Greek prefix that means balance.

Being together with the punning four and trying to snatch them from their verbal spin is like juggling hot potatoes. No one hangs back or is at a loss for words. It’s a swift badinage, an assault of quips with never a beat dropped, or an overlap either.

And that’s the key to their creative style, as they explain it and as local audiences might experience it Friday and Saturday at Royce Hall, UCLA, and at an engagement June 4 at the Japan America Theatre.

Predictably, ISO could not contain itself in the harness of an outsider: “We just weren’t working happily under the direction of Moses (Pendleton), who founded Momix,” says Ezralow.

“The truth is we had too many ideas of our own bouncing around to carry out someone else’s. And we felt that some of the stuff imposed on us came close to Barnum & Bailey gimmickry.”

And it’s true that ISO, a sort of nouvelle vaudeville, has a greater investment as crossover artists than Momix or some other dance companies.

“We’re not unique,” says Hampton. “Whether it’s a fashion show or a commercial or a feature film or an MTV video, it’s a crossover world we’re dealing with. This is the age of fax machines in Bangladesh.”

Being a true collaboration, ISO enjoys other communal spirits such as the Bobs, an a cappella new-wave quartet that specializes in doo-wop soundscapes. ISO and the Bobs will share the UCLA date, with half the program featuring integrated works.

Originally, it was the Kronos Quartet that ISO planned to collaborate with. When schedule conflicts quashed that option, ISO suggested the Bobs to UCLA, having already worked with the group in last summer’s Serious Fun Festival at Lincoln Center.

Then, as now, the collaboration evokes endless epithets. “Our single long piece together,” says Roland, “is a thing called ‘ISOBOBS Dinner Theater’ and, of course, we’ll be drinking ISOtonic gin and having shiskaBOBS as an entree, Italian ISOs as a palate-cleanser and BOBSicles for dessert.”

As for the rest of the agenda, there’s “Helter Skelter,” a piece set to the Beatles’ tune and one that the Bobs also recorded (winning a Grammy nomination); “Psycho Killer,” inspired by the Talking Heads; “Foreign Tails” and “Captain Tenacity.” Everything on the program is new to Los Angeles, this appearance being the local debut of ISO.

Like Momix and Pilobolus before it, ISO is based in New England--but the members are not under one roof, as were its predecessors.

“It’s healthier this way,” says Steinberg. “We’ve been through bumpy times.”

“Yeah,” seconds Hampton, “even though the communal serum is in our blueberry pancakes, separate quarters keeps us from sticking.”

“Living together all the time,” says Roland, “was like trying to catch a bar of wet soap. Exhausting.”

While the energy they generate as a foursome is ongoing, there is an alternating current that they all recognize: the team-versus-individual-competitor spirit. One minute Roland says she’s worrying about whether she can top the person on stage when her turn arrives. And the next minute she’s cheering the team in her head. A piece entitled “Curtain Call” addresses that issue.

But what is even more basic to their mentality is the gut honesty they share.

“Call us ‘I’m So Open,’ ” says Steinberg. “That means sometimes the remarks are constructive and sometimes they’re hurtful. But the permission is implicit.”

“So is the obligation to be active,” says Hampton. “We all have to build our own insanity. If you just sit under the toadstool together you’ll end up as mulch.”

“Yeah,” says Ezralow. “Like the lowest common denominator. We’ve promised not to ever become that.”