Dance and Music Reviews : Parallel View: Rudy Perez and Cartesian Reunion

Like two Cartesian coordinates locating a point on a plane, the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra (CRMO) and the Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble joined forces Saturday in a successful evening that showed that both electronic chamber music and Post-Modern dance still seem to be haunted by the specter of contemporary urban alienation.

The six musicians of CRMO opened the program, aptly named “Parallel View” with five short works, including Douglas M. Hein’s “Mille Regretz” with vocals by the composer-performer and two energetic selections by Steve Moshier.

Dressed in dark suits, dancers Anne Goodman, Jeffrey Grimaldo, Robert Keane, Anet Margot Ris and Dura Snodgras triumphed in Perez’s 1985 “Fall-Out,” an ode to the rat race that looks like a mobile version of Robert Longo’s “Men in the Cities” drawings and paintings currently on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The choreography moved from simian to archly human, as the men and women were whipped around by forces unseen to a taped score by CRMO composer Lloyd Rodgers. One-on-one confrontations, rigorous frontal formations and even silent screams marked the violence of white-collar ritual.

The evening’s highlight, however, was the premiere performance of Perez’s “Racing Thoughts,” a dramatic dance rife with poses drawn from sport that seems to focus on the tension between competition and personal connection. Only the final section remains unformed, with a volleyball net intended presumably as a clunky metaphor for separation.

CRMO closed the evening with the first performance of Moshier’s “Silver Heels” and two brief selections by Moshier and Rodgers. Performances continue Oct. 21 and 22 at the Los Angeles Photography Center.