Dance Review : ‘In the Works’ Finale at Gascon Institute

A capacity crowd braved humid conditions Sunday at the Gascon Institute to view the last afternoon of “In the Works” this season. The program of choreography and commentary featured dances by Susan Rose and Ferne Ackerman.

Rose, an early graduate of CalArts, returned to California last year after running a Boston-based modern dance ensemble. Her “Five Little Dances” is based on a grid of oranges. To recordings of Swedish folk music, she and Kelli King investigated, with great concentration and humor, the range of possible interactions between women and round fruit.

“First Steps in the Shape of a Song” consisted of two brief solos to music from the sound track of “Diva.” One of these was inspired, Rose told the audience, by the shape and texture of a dried palm frond; as danced by King it had an elegant, curving verticality.

Rose also showed “The Eleventh Hour,” a suite for five. To a percussion score by Mikel Rouse, it explored momentum and risk; the dancers fell backward into waiting arms and concluded the piece balanced in a human pyramid.

Ferne Ackerman discussed the genesis of several of her familiar pieces and deconstructed a new dance, “Unseen Enemies,” so that the audience could observe its inner workings. To a recording of cello music by Kodaly, four members of her company, Big Flood, performed the dance’s gestural, grasping motions, punctuated by sharp exhalations of breath.