Music / Dance Reviews : Jazz Dancers Inc. at Japan America

With its loose, lyrical and laid-back style, the 10-member Jazz Dancers Inc. didn’t insist on drill-team power effects and precision in a program Saturday at the Japan America Theatre. But the variety in approach was not always an unalloyed pleasure, given the dancers’ technical unevenness.

You could see that Sayhber Rawles, company co-artistic director with her husband Dennon Rawles, wanted to exploit that individuality to construct her “Nothing New,” one of the five new works on the program.

Using exaggerated character vignettes danced by Nela Fry, Kim Hale, Dhana Jensen, Angie Sherman, Jocelyn Shiro and Donna Speckman, the piece explored women’s isolation, competitiveness and a kind of final solidarity, in which all the dancers adopted each other’s signature motifs.

The work never came off persuasively, however, partly because it was conceived weakly, but also because the dancers failed to generate physically intense portraits.

In these terms, the two Rawles remained the troupe’s best exemplars of technique and expressivity.

Probably nothing generated as much warranted audience approval as their familiar argument/reconciliation duet, “Tango Apasionado,” so it was no surprise that they wanted to stress Sayhber’s crisp, clean and energized movements in their jokey duet, “Toujours L’Amour,” which turned any apache dance stereotypes in “Tango” on their ear.

Lack of peak physical intensity also marred “It’s a Man’s World,” a group piece relying on the single pun of women dressed as “Guys-and-Dolls” mobsters, and “Latin Mania,” a loose and fluffy suite.

Even “Got a Feeling,” a group portrait about sexual frustration, only sometimes rose to the occasion. Here, saxophonist Bill Bergman, pianist John Paruolo, drummer Kevin Cloud and bassist Tom Warrington played Bergman and Paruolo’s score live.