DANCE REVIEW : Malashock Takes New Directions

Like the choreography of its artistic director, Malashock Dance & Company moves forward in gutsy, passionately felt leaps. With the debut of two dancers and the world premiere of a new work over the weekend, they continue to boldly go where no other San Diego-based company has gone in quite some time.

In a bill titled “Flames to Names,” Friday through Sunday at Horton Plaza’s Lyceum Theatre, Malashock emphasized new directions while refusing to let his reach exceed his grasp. The moves--both business and artistic--are logical ones for this staunch 4-year-old company, but they’re risky nonetheless.

In terms of business, the addition of seasoned dancers Greg Lane and Carol Mead signals that Malashock Dance & Company is nearly ready to brave the New York jungle, or at least to expand their touring. Yet, at a time when most arts organizations are pulling back rather than expanding, this increased financial burden is also particularly daring.

Artistically, Malashock continues to explore the dynamics of character and narrative introduced in his last premiere, “Stan’s Retreat” (also on the bill here). This time, however, he’s even more concerned with solo interludes and psychological narratives.

Malashock, the pioneering “New Romanticist,” swims as intently as ever against the anti-emotional tide of contemporary dance. The former Twyla Tharp dancer is also becoming increasingly theatrical.

“Unfortunate Names,” set to the Brazilian sounds of Uakti, begins with three set-piece solos. The first is danced by the energetic Loni Pallidino, dressed in a modest skirt and buttoned-up blouse.

Initially demure, her steps become increasingly frenetic, until she partially unfastens her shirt, revealing a modest cotton bra--and, with it, an inner self.

Maj Xander, the most striking and expressive of Malashock’s dancers, enters wearing a gossamer purple cocktail dress. Bold, even exhibitionistic, at first, she goes through a change that leaves her suddenly meek, discarding her silver heels as she flees the stage.

Debi Toth, however, who partners Malashock competently later in the bill, doesn’t fare as well as Pallidino and Xander. Her solo is a stereotypical screed, complete with screechy, distracting vocalizations, that she delivers while wearing a costume of quasi-dominatrix garb.

New company members Carol Mead, formerly of the Martha Graham and Murray Louis dance companies, and Greg Lane, who danced for Bella Lewitsky, made their first appearance in “Unfortunate Names,” cast as a harmonious couple burdened by Angst .

As always, Malashock pays attention to all the details, choreographing every inch of his dancers’ bodies and making sure the music and lighting enhance the moods he chooses to evoke.

There’s an obvious lineage from Malashock’s earlier, more abstract, treatments of human relationships to the episodic narrative of “Unfortunate Names.” Yet as much of a virtuoso as Malashock is when it comes to choreographing interplay, he’s still finding his voice in creating solos, and in integrating those solos with the group scenes and the work as a whole.

“Unfortunate Names” may not be as polished a dance as Malashock usually offers, but it does show that he continues to be willing to push his own aesthetic boundaries. Never content to return to styles and scenarios already mastered, Malashock wants to venture further into the realm of dance-theater, without losing the visceral appeal of his non-narrative works.

“Stan’s Retreat” (1990), a study in relationships inspired by Carson McCuller’s novel “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” was as compelling this time out as in its debut, with Lane easily finding a place for himself in the cast.

Xander and Toth reprised their portraits of two lonely women, while Lane and Pallidino appeared as a blissful pair of young lovers. Malashock himself played the outsider whose intrusion rends the idyll, sparking desire in Xander and Toth’s women and tearing apart the youthful couple.

Also on the bill was “Up in Flames” (1988), an electric suite to music by Jimi Hendrix that’s much less narrative than either “Stan’s Retreat” or “Unfortunate Names.” Filled with steamy, dramatic couplings and signature Malashock upper-body gestures and athletic lunges and lifts, it remains as seductive as ever.

Mead, a skilled technician, appeared in “Up in Flames” as well as “Unfortunate Names,” and seems, like Lane, to be making a niche for herself within the ensemble. She and her fellow dancers will no doubt be ready, no matter what hurdles Malashock decides to scale next.