Music and Dance Reviews : Choreographers Festival

Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers’ New Works Dance Festival VI, seen Sunday afternoon at the Coronet Theatre, confirmed the company’s artistic platform and its split personality, with six new pieces by six choreographers and a program divided almost evenly between modern dance and tap.

In its ninth season, the company is operating at a workshop level: The choreography and the dancing were earnest and purposeful, but lacked assurance and authority.

“Cielo e Terra” by company artistic director Louise Reichlin and “A Structured Improvisation in 2 Parts,” conceived and directed by Elanora Panich, both explored contrasts in energy. But neither work demonstrated an original or compelling sense of composition, and tentative, uneven dancing neutralized the dynamic contrasts.

“A Question of Balance,” Karyn Klein’s upbeat piece for a female trio, offered generalized modern dance moves with choreography and dancing that were sketched rather than fully realized.

Young-Ae Park’s well-defined “Moth on Moss” was a standout, a coherent composition sustained by concentrated performances. Bursts of retrograde movement interrupted the group’s steady diagonal migration, and stillness and gesture heightened the wary mood.

Taped music nearly drowned out the dancing in two new tap solos. In “False Arrest” by Bernie Lenhoff and Alfred Desio, Lenhoff’s ungainly style undercut the well-crafted stop-and-start choreography. Desio’s “Tapstruck,” a character dance for agile Bill Anagnos, was long on gymnastics.