DANCE REVIEW : Quick-Change Artists Pull Off Performance

An eleventh-hour injury to Three’s Company principal Terri Shipman put a crimp in the company’s style Thursday night. The show went on at the Mandell Weiss Theater with one less dancer, but the loss of a major cast member created a frenzy of adjustments for the choreographers and some extra headaches for the remaining dancers in the chamber-sized ensemble.

Although the hurried repairs to plug choreographic holes worked well enough to get by on opening night, many of the overall designs were more than a little out of whack. To their credit, the dancers proved resilient in adapting. That says something about the level of professionalism the company has attained.

The five-piece program consisted of three premieres, along with two major works that received their debuts at Sushi Performance Gallery last fall. Although Shipman was to dance in four of the five works, company artistic director Jean Isaacs opted to use a substitute in only one piece.

The stand-in spot in Isaacs’ way-out “Hoedown at the Boneyard” went to Stacy Scardino, a Jazz Unlimited dancer who appeared with San Diego State’s University Dance Company at its premiere performance last weekend.

Isaacs clearly needed another body to flesh out this bizarre, punk-style couples dance, even though Scardino’s part in the boisterous brouhaha was not pivotal.

This “Hoedown” was definitely not traditional. It decked the eight dancers out in funky, tough-guy garb, then set the stage awash with pools of bright light. The dance itself was a travesty of American folk dance forms that turned out to be a no-holds-barred battle of the sexes.

“Hoedown” was fraught with an undercurrent of violence, despite some very comic confrontations set to the relentless music of an Indian sitar--souped up with Western-style high-tech motifs.

It featured Terry Wilson to excellent advantage in a fast and furious solo section, and Nancy McCaleb (in her only appearance on the program) in a rubbery series of drunken maneuvers. The dance was an obvious crowd pleaser, but its shelf life will undoubtedly be limited because of its slight substance.

Thursday evening’s performance opened and closed with works by McCaleb, whose kinetic visions have helped shape the company’s oeuvre during the past few years.

The most powerful work on the program was “Mirror of Simple Souls,” a dark and brooding work that took McCaleb to medieval sources for inspiration. The dance, based on the writings of a 14th-Century mystic who was burned for heresy, was non-literal in its movements. Although it had to limp along without a replacement for Shipman, it conjured up the ghastly events with frightening clarity.

A commissioned score by internationally known composer and video artist David Stout--complete with wailing chants that form a deadly sonic shroud for the dancers--propelled the piece to its inevitable conclusion. Baggy brown costumes for the company made shadowy images on the darkly lit stage, while the foursome convulsed through its shattering moves.

Denise Dabrowski will fill in for Shipman in subsequent performances, which will bring the cast back to five. That should make quite a difference to the overall look of the dance.

Three’s Company co-founder Betzi Roe provided a new quartet, “Another Place.” Fortunately, it was the one piece in which Shipman was not scheduled to dance, so it came off entirely intact with Bruno Esparza, Faith Jensen-Ismay, Patrick Nollet and Wilson doing the honors.

“Another Place” was other-worldly in feeling, its eerie score echoed in the white androgynous costumes and in the slow-motion dance designs. There was almost a celestial quality to the free-flowing moves, and at its best, it billowed forth in weightless bursts that seemed to evolve directly from the musical impulses (an original score by Steve Moshier of the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra).

Roe had not fully realized her vision by opening night. However, if the choreographer gets all the bugs out by the time it surfaces in May, when it will be danced here by the Leningrad State Ballet, it should be a smash.

Both McCaleb’s “No Shade” and Isaacs’ “No Subject/No Object” premiered last fall. Although both pieces were short one woman, their look was bolstered by the sophisticated technical support and large performing area available at the Mandell Weiss.

In fact, Isaac’s striking centerpiece (a witty duet for UC San Diego student Brian Cluggish and Cal Ballet ballerina Denise Dabrowski) was one of the highlights of the evening.

Cluggish is tall and stately in his moves, while Dabrowski seems almost childlike. Isaacs wisely played up those physical differences in her choreography, letting Cluggish lift his partner well above his head, then cart her off like a lump of clay. The dance (set to the deep mahogany tones of J.S. Bach’s Suite for Unaccompanied Cello) offered nice contrast to the rest of the program.

McCaleb’s “No Shade” has been expanded and improved since its premiere, and the environmental message has become more potent. Even with makeshift adjustments for the loss of Shipman, it made a strong curtain-raiser.

With props in place (a floor strewn with plastic foam cups), proper lighting to simulate the parched look of a world without the ozone layer, and sufficient distance from the dancers, “No Shade” came a lot closer to its creator’s vision of the theater piece.

Miles Anderson’s offbeat score provided the proper aural assault for this deadly serious earth dance.

The fact that the company was able to muster five good men for the occasion was certainly something to celebrate. In the past, the modern dance troupe has been dominated by female dancers. This weekend’s concert offers hope for a better balance and more choreographic flexibility.

Three’s Company will complete its weekend run at the Mandell Weiss Center with performances at 8 tonight and Sunday night.