DANCE REVIEW : ‘Clearing’ Rough Around Edges, but Debut Shows Much Promise

Three’s Company’s summer Lo-Tec series has become a popular proving ground for out-of-town artists over the years. And why not? The intimate studio setting provides a safe harbor for testing new techniques and polishing raw dance designs before they are presented on a formal concert stage.

Riverside-based Stephanie Gilliland, a veteran dance maker with choreographic roots in musical theater, television, and opera--as well as modern concert dance--was the latest visitor to try out a brand new piece at the local, experimental venue.

Gilliland premiered “Clearing,” her first attempt at a full-length dance work, during two performances over the weekend. Although she started setting the piece on her dancers well before they arrived in San Diego for their weeklong residency, it did not take shape for its first complete run-through until about three hours before curtain Saturday night. Little wonder that the dance sagged in spots and lacked the crisp patina of professional polish.

The 10-movement dance work ran well over an hour, without intermission. And the three women who performed it (Laurie Burnaby, Elaine Nakashima, and Gilliland herself) were on stage the entire time. That made it something of an endurance test for the dancers--who were obviously spent by its conclusion--and a bit of an ordeal for the lo-tec audience, considering the low comfort level in the theater.

There was much to savor in the movement, however, and in the sculptural set pieces by Mick Gronek. And, if Gilliland had allotted some time off stage for costume changes, it might have added considerably to the work’s visual interest. As it was, the dancers wore the same layered-look rehearsal togs throughout the shifting sections of the dance.

Gilliland is an abstractionist, so there was no clear-cut story line in “Clearing,” but the overall theme of women in nature kept cropping up as the dance evolved. It began with “Sticks and Fall,” a ritualistic romp with a strong sense of the primordial.

“Sticks” sent an entranced Gilliland in circular patterns around the odd-shaped sculptures placed helter-skelter throughout the performing space. At one point, the lone dancer seemed to be carried along on a wave of religious fervor.

Gronek’s artworks, titled “Gradual Rise,” took on the mysterious quality of Stonehenge, particularly when the musical motifs evoked ancient chants, primitive wails or loud, repetitive drones.

If the sculptures had been artfully lighted to allow more shadow play on the backdrop, they would have been very powerful props indeed. As it was, they were often lost in the background. That could be the price you have to pay to see this highly theatrical work in a bare-bones arena.

Later in the piece, in a short interlude titled, “Shifting,” the dancers interacted with the art in fascinating ways that suggest endless metaphors for these rising monoliths.

Gilliland used animal imagery to excellent effect in a couple of duets and trios. Early, in “Sport,” she made playful sport with Nakashima and Burnaby, when they teamed up for some tricky entanglements.

“Undercurrent,” a floor-bound section for all three dancers, used an interplay of jungle-inspired icons danced in lightning-quick time. And “Fledgling” gave impish Nakashima the limelight for a cat-like solo that melted into the throbbing percussives of the finale.

Gilliland painted her most impressive stage pictures in “Imprints,” the final section of the dance. The trio sliced through space with animal intensity, but it looked as if its designer still wasn’t quite sure how to end it.

Guest dancer Sheryl Freeman appeared in one brief interlude, titled “Ingress,” a softly flowing solo that used borrowed images from Indian dance. And all three principals recited a spoken text in “Three Stories,” a section that summed up what the performers were saying in dance during the rest of the piece--”We are girls . . . women in nature.”

“Clearing” needs more shaping and control before it bows in as a finished product, but the raw materials are there. And the three diverse dancers who bring it to life have an obvious zest for their subject.