Dance : Steven Craig Offers Solo, Other Works at LACE

Steven Craig’s nude solo, “Two Days Before, “ reveals his powerful upper torso and arms, but shapeless legs--not a dancer’s body. Indeed, the solo involves reaching, bending and head-lashing actions in place: his legs estranged from the movement above, just as the emotions flickering across his face seem disconnected from his physical activity.

Estrangement from dancing proves a key component of Craig’s style, judging from this solo and three doggedly linear pieces at LACE on Saturday. Dancing per se becomes something to be parodied--as in the mock-tango from the playlet “He Told Me His Favorite Song Was Edelweiss,” in which his character’s macho posturing hides a need to be tied up and beaten by his partner. Joan Ranquet’s character complies, expressing her crypto-feminist rage.

Defined by spoken texts, these ideas are illustrated through gesture (often exaggerated for outrageous comedy), with this approach also shaping “. . . You Know, So My You Know, And I Know . . . ,” another duet about dependency. Craig uses gymnastic lifts inventively here--with Jeff Moore climbing on Craig’s shoulders at every opportunity--but the work never risks a genuine dance statement or conveying the exact nature of the men’s relationship.

Finally, the solo “Opening Like Books” uses films, the drone of crickets, music by Derek Duke, realistic gesture and violent thrashing on the floor--but depends on speech to explain itself. Craig can create compelling characters and think up intriguing premises, but what you see is staging, not choreography: contemporary themes served by a curiously old-fashioned aesthetic.