DANCE REVIEW : Looking at Dance in a Literally Different Light

Modern dance fans who flock to Three’s Company’s summer Lo-Tec concerts have learned to look at dance in a different light. But, last weekend, visiting choreographer Heidi Duckler moved the concert to a nearby parking lot and turned the lights down even lower to drive home a point on perspective.

The evening began on a traditional note--with Duckler’s dancers doing excerpts from a full-length work by their resident choreographer. Then, about halfway through the evening, the entire audience was ushered out of the studio and directed to the parking lot for a decidedly nontraditional experience.

It was there that the crowd was introduced to Duckler’s special brand of Lo-Tec dance, a site-specific work lighted by automobile headlights. By the time the audience had assembled on the opposite side of the performing area, the six dancers, decked out in resort wear and sunglasses, were already languishing on beach chairs. And they “danced” most of the piece without removing themselves from the chairs lined up along the brick wall of the adjacent building.

It was tongue-in-cheek all the way as “Sight Specific” poked fun at the superficiality of a tourist’s-eye view of the world. Even the spectators got into the act when the dancers turned their instant cameras on the crowd--snapping pictures of the ogling audience. Like the target of their satire, the dancers seemed oblivious to the real nature of the event.

If the comic theater piece seemed oddly out of place in an asphalt parking lot, that was the ironic edge to the message: that tourists soak up the sun without ever ingesting the true cultural experience. On a broader scale, “Sight-Specific” lampooned the quirky inaccuracies of perception.

The eight sets of headlights that surrounded both the dancers and the audience threw more than enough light on the subject, and added a touch of the macabre that would have been difficult to duplicate indoors. They may never replace standard lighting instruments, but the automobile lights did have a fascinating effect.

The studio-bound dances that shared the evening with Duckler’s outdoor novelty were much more traditional. Three’s Company billed the concert as a “split evening,” and it was--in more ways than one. In addition to its double venue, it was divided between two very different dance makers.

Duckler’s part of the program included two excerpts from her full-length “Ancient Terrain.” The short curtain-raiser might have suffered by being seen out of context, but it seemed more interesting for its Day-Glo costumes (uncredited on the program) than for its symbolic or kinetic thrust. And the score was so over-amplified as to be grating.

The meatier second segment, which showed off the company’s technique, was weightlessly buoyant and strong in its imagery. The opening solo had Duckler rising from behind a rock, like a mermaid emerging from the ocean. And the dance continued to ebb and flow through most of its ensemble maneuvers. Only when the dance grew too literal did it seem pretentious or forced.

Tucked into the first part of the program was a brief solo, danced and choreographed by Lorna Dunn, a long-limbed, limber dancer who is an intern with Three’s Company this summer. “New Moon” made its strongest statement with a dark silhouette of Dunn set against an eerie, red-lit backdrop. Borrowed Graham-esque images pervaded the piece as the dance unfolded, but Dunn proved she could command the spotlight.

After intermission, a group of nine Three’s Company interns took part in a work-in-progress by Lar Lubovitch soloist Rick Michalek. Michalek titled the piece “Studies for a Duet,” and it was obvious that the budding choreographer was cataloguing permutations on the two-dancer theme. However, few of the couplings he created for this concert were particularly interesting or inventive, and the dancers would have benefited from a little more rehearsal time.

Saturday night’s performance played to a packed house--the biggest crowd of this Lo-Tec season. In fact, many gung-ho dance watchers were forced to squat on floor mats in front of the grandstands. But that didn’t seem to dampen their enthusiasm for this unusual mixed bill.

Next week, the San Jose-based Margaret Wingrove Dance Company makes its San Diego debut, and Shawn Womack, a visiting workshop instructor from Ohio, unveils a new work for five Three’s Company interns.