DANCE REVIEW : Avaz and Djimbe Share Second ‘In the Works’

With two minutes of explanatory chit-chat for every minute of dancing, the Jan. 21 opening program of the Dance Gallery’s “In the Works” series expressed a clear preference for blather over art. On Sunday at the Gascon Institute in the old Helms Bakery Building in Culver City, Program Two lasted even longer: more than three hours.

Maybe it’s time to rename this six-part event “In the Words” and recognize that it has no purpose beyond proving that choreographers can sound as inane as anybody else.

How many times do we have to hear that Leon Mobley (artistic director of Djimbe) comes from Boston? It’s not a hard concept to grasp.

Why subject Anthony Shay (artistic director of Avaz) to countless audience questions that ultimately provide curiosity gratification rather than any deepened perspective on a performance? “In the Works” seems to bring out the worst in everyone.

A company with a background of community and school performances--as well as an annual summer residency at the L.A. Zoo--Djimbe specializes in traditional West African music and dance. The drumming (led by Mobley) is often brilliant but the dancing by a spirited, well-drilled five-woman, one-man group doesn’t measure up.

In “Sunu,” “Lamba” and “Dounba” sequences, the stretch, drive and articulation of the dancing remain curtailed--sharp enough, admittedly, to be invigorating, but never near any flashpoint. Oddly, a sense of group unity emerges only when the members sing; in dance, their differences loom larger than any shared identity.

By now, Avaz is well known to local audiences, and Shay’s meticulous introductions are a familiar part of company programs. New, however, is his capsule history of theatricalized folk dance: factually unreliable (no mention of the Denishawn company, for starters) and self-aggrandizing.

A generous sampling of dances from Baluchistan, Romania, Tajikistan, Croatia, Armenia and Kurdistan suggest the richness and variety of an Avaz evening, with the company men looking particularly fine in the rapid, intricate steps of a Romanian “Calusari” ritual.

The contributions of Avaz women range from the grave, skimming steps of the Armenian “In Anush Davig” trio to a quintet from Baluchistan in which they shake and strike their bracelets, as well as flicking their fingers left and right in bold gestural filigree.

All the talk and, especially, the dancers’ costumes gain from the intimacy of the temporary Dance Gallery studio space--though sight line problems keep the footwork lost to much of the audience. Anybody want to donate some risers before Gregg Bielemeier and Stephanie Gilliland’s program of solos on March 18?