Music and Performance Art Reviews : Twisted Spring

Quality control fell right through the floor in the second Twisted Spring program Saturday at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE).

The series, devoted to works by local choreographers and performance artists, made a promising start two weeks ago. But the second program, made up of works by different artists, offered only one piece--Anthony Ledesma’s “A Different Point of View”--that sustained any interest.

Focusing mostly on short takes of a therapy session, Ledesma’s work strongly delineates four mentally ill characters, the social problems they face and finally one person’s preparation to reenter the outside world.

Offering strong character portrayals were Laura Nielsen as the dreamy, childlike Audrey; Andrea Mills as the explosive, angry Franka; Clyde Howell as the stumbling, near-inarticulate Robert; Ledesma as the contorted, withdrawn Sam, and Paul Rosenblum as the decent, unfazed Facilitator.

Still, to see their afflicted-character leitmotifs pushed into quasi-dance solos and, especially, to have the action unfold against Hector Armienta’s dinky jazz score, undercut the seriousness of the work and began to suggest the exploitation of the subject it purported to treat sympathetically.

Despite some occasionally striking images, Naomi Goldberg’s “What I Like and What I Have Learned” proved rambling, disconnected, indiscriminate.

Sandra Christensen’s “Highball,” a drama piece about three women having a drinking jag on the eve of the end of the world, was simplistic in thought and execution.

In “It’s a Wink (II),” Benjamin Weissman read his interminable fantasy-porn text while Anita Pace slinked and awkwardly noodled around on point.

The powers-that-be at LACE apparently think they can shovel any half-baked work onto the stage and get away with it.