Dance and Music Reviews : Kathy Rose at L.A. Contemporary Exhibitions

Dancing in front of a film is a self-defeating activity because film is endowed with larger-than-life powers the dancer can’t hope to rival. Still, Thursday night at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Kathy Rose demonstrated some of the possibilities with stylized movements accompanying her own animation sequences and the filmed unison actions of seven other dancers.

In “Primitive Movers” of 1983, Rose lined up with her stick figures of slinky women on the screen, imitating their repetitive arm and hand gestures. The plasticity and groundedness of her angular movements contrasted sharply with the wispy, two-dimensional action-shorthand she gave the figures.

When she stepped forward to allow her silhouette to be visible on the screen, this new image offered yet another level of movement, reduced to flat, angular patterns. Trained by students of Expressionist dance pioneer Mary Wigman, Rose amplified her intense, exotic presence with mask-like facial expressions and odd, vivid costumes with a Moderne flair.

Toward the end of “Primitive Movers,” the cartoon figures become abstract forms washing over Rose’s body. Last year, in “Syncopations” Rose toyed with making a semi-abstract background tapestry out of the metronomic unison movements of other dancers’ torsos, limbs and hands.

In this film, hints of Alwin Nikolais and Pilobolus mingle with simple camera tricks and a slick color-jolted image-consciousness that suggests fantasy fashion magazine layouts. The dancers’ movements are not precisely synchronized, however, and Rose’s superimposed live dancing looked thin and redundant despite the unflagging energy she poured into a long, undulating solo.

The final section--Rose endlessly manipulating a chiffon scarf against a filmic background of floating scarfs--ended the piece on an embarrassingly self-indulgent note.