DANCE REVIEW : Choreographer Limits Young Troupe to Predictable, Transparent Moves

Modern dance took a holiday during the Christmas season while local ballet troupes aired their seasonal offerings. But it’s business as usual for serious dance this weekend.

Al Germani Dance Company--the new kid on the block--rang in the decade Thursday night at La Jolla High School’s Parker Theatre with an all Germani program of modern-based works. The performance will be repeated tonight at 8.

The concert featured two premieres and a doctored version of another. Otherwise, it was basically a rehash of the company’s maiden performance in August. However, given that Germani, the sole choreographer for his company, began creating dances only last year, the troupe’s limited repertory was to be expected.

Germani’s artistic focus is limited too, as this concert confirmed. But that limitation is self-imposed. The novice choreographer prefers to dabble in dances that express emotion-charged human experiences. As a result, Thursday’s concert--like the company’s debut performance--was heavily weighted with psychodrama and Angst.

The one exception on the five-piece program was “Stuff,” a series of solos culminating with interplay among the full company of six. Set to a traditional African score, “Stuff” seemed to have nothing more on its mind than dancing, and it made a fine finale for the emerging ensemble. It also offered a break from the nervous intensity of Germani’s other work.

Danced in jungle print skirts, “Stuff” wove soft-edged moves and easy-flowing undulations with the rhythmic sounds of Africa and made an attractive showcase for the cast.

Germani lists “Pas de Blues,” a twosome that tackles suppressed emotions, and “Chairworks,” a chair-bound dance steeped in metaphor, as “new” choreography. However, both showed up as works-in-progress last summer.

The biggest difference between the premiere performance of these dances and the finished products was the quality of the dancing, which has improved considerably. Tina Buerkle and Marni Respicio, the duo who square off in black leather jackets for “Pas de Blues,” were particular standouts. But all five dancers in “Chairworks” delivered the goods.

Germani has no men in the troupe, although he increased the ranks to six for this concert. That obviously hasn’t cramped his style, however. When he expanded the duet for Buerkle and Respicio, Germani added lifts for each of them, and the women carried them off without a hitch during the opening performance.

“Hul,” an enigmatic dance that explores the human/animal connection, was new, but there is nothing original about the thematic device. Choreographers--especially modernists--have used the idea as grist for their mills in myriad ways. The results are usually kinetically exciting, even when they can boast of little else.

Germani made this new piece his curtain-raiser, and it showed promise in the opening solo, nicely danced by Bridget Fearn. Fearn does most of the dancing on her knees in this section, and the twitchy, scissor-shaped patterns she creates with her folded body are fascinating.

The dance goes downhill from there, with some predictable maneuvers by the group unfolding against the animal sounds of its score. “Hul” is a work-in-progress, according to the program, but it ended so abruptly Thursday night, it seemed to have been lopped in mid-thought.

“Chairworks” made a hit with the Soviets when it shared the bill with the Georgian State Singing and Dancing Ensemble at the Soviet Arts Festival. But its abstracted message about the invisible barriers the psyche can create still came across as labored and transparent on second viewing.

Germani used the predictable approach. He kept the dancers fixed to chairs for most of the piece. But “Chairworks” gave the ensemble quite a workout just the same--and this time, the dancers were ready for it.

“Tux” is another recycled work that hasn’t improved with familiarity. It has a Bob Fosse-like look--with the company decked out in black derbies and white gloves. It even uses some of Fosse’s jazzy trademarks. But the mismatched mosaic that forms the sound track (part stop-and-go music, part spoken text--all poorly integrated) creates a clumsy accompaniment.

Obviously, the inconsistencies are part of Germani’s point, but that doesn’t excuse the amateurish sonics or the lack of cohesiveness. In addition, the developing dancers were not slick and polished enough in their unison work to do justice to that show-biz style of dancing.

The pacing of the Germani concert was a little better this time, but there is still much too much dead space between offerings. Unfortunately, that problem is not likely to improve as long as the same few dancers are needed for every piece on the program.