DANCE REVIEW : Jazz Unlimited Concerts Reaching Out to New Audiences

Jazz Unlimited staked out some new terrain with a three-performance weekend run at the Educational Cultural Complex.

With co-sponsorship from that Southeast San Diego-based institution, Jazz Unlimited offered half-priced performances, in order to reach audiences in an under-served community. Judging from the size of Saturday night’s crowd at ECC, the community responded to the invitation.

The program was a mixed bag of works by Patricia and Alicia Rincon (co-directors of the troupe) and guest choreographers Jean Isaacs (of Three’s Company) and Margaret Marshall.

The first act was bracketed by two major pieces (Patricia Rincon’s recent multimedia work, “Silahkan,” and her hard-hitting jazz dance, “Grounded”) that were just premiered and reviewed during Jazz Unlimited’s December concert.

Only one piece on the program was a premiere, and that was just an introduction to a larger work designed last year. Marshall, a UC San Diego dance professor listed on the program as associate choreographer for the company, designed the new segment as a prologue to her romantic comedy, “Relax.”

Marshall called the added section “Prologue.” Fortunately, the dance was much more inspired than the title. “Prologue” featured two couples in party clothes dancing to 1940s-style songs. It wasn’t long into the piece that the sappy sentimentality turned to travesty, and the cockeyed humor took hold. What else can you do with lyrics the likes of “I like coffee, I like tea?”

The witty parody was also one of the danciest pieces on the program, and it provided the perfect showcase for the supple grace of one-time Three’s Company regular, Kelley Grant.

Grant was striking in a slithery duet with Richard Bulda. She negotiated the boneless backbends (a la Ginger Rogers), and flowed like molasses as Bulda swept her off her feet.

Jazz Unlimited has a knack for uncovering spectacular male dancers in a town where well-trained men are definitely in the minority. Bulda, a charismatic young man with a reckless attack and strong partnering ability, may be the next Barry Bernal for this jazz-based troupe.

The UC San Diego student danced in three pieces on last weekend’s program, and looked like a dynamo on each outing. Saturday night, the women of the company were at the top of their form too, which is very good indeed. And many of them can move from modern to jazz without missing a beat.

Marshall contributed another pieces to the program, the revival of “Facets.” This sassy work for four women explores the complexity of the human personality with mirror moves and a few surprises.

The dance never surpasses its clever opening tableau, but Suzanne Fernandez, Faith Jensen-Ismay, Meghan Riley, and Stacy Scardino made it a delightful romp.

Jazz Unlimited has been moving toward a smoother, modern-based style of movement lately, and the acquisition of Isaacs’ “Untitled Duet” took the company about as far into the modern realm as it could get.

The well-crafted twosome, set to an original score by Michael Roth, is a stunning embodiment of its theme (conflict and resolution). And with Three’s Company dancers Jensen-Ismay and Terry Wilson (recently associated with Jazz Unlimited as well) to re-create their original roles, “Untitled Duet” maintained its urgency and power.

Isaacs’ twosome deserves more technical support than it got at the ECC last weekend, but it is such a solid piece of pure dance, it managed to fly on its own.

Alicia Rincon’s “Pictures Without Words,” choreographed in 1988, was a back-to-basics jazz work set to the pounding music of Spiro Gyra. It decked the dancers out in garish green satin costumes, then let the relentless rhythms scatter them across the stage. It also contained a demanding duet for Bulda and Fernandez, who made the most of their opportunities in the spotlight.