DANCE REVIEW : East L.A. Choreographers Showcase at Barnsdall

What can Latino rap, classroom ballet, Mexican folklorico and modern dance have in common?

In the case of the third annual East L.A. Choreographers Showcase, seen over the weekend at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, nothing more than geographical location and community pride.

Certainly there was no unifying aesthetic at work here. And, as most grab-bag programs tend to be, this one jarred the viewer from number to number (11 in all) throughout its two hours. But producer-director Frank Guevara, with a cultural missionary’s zeal, made an arguably judicious sacrifice for his politics of inclusion.

That meant an extreme range in the performance scale--the most fearsome moment on Friday coming with Merlinda Reyes, whose Ballet East girls could barely rise on pointe much less look like anything but a beginners’ class in a first-time recital. Anne Curran ranked second as an embarrassing Isadora wanna-be.

Everything went up from there, however. Guevara’s ensemble, performing his brand of dirty dancing with some self-consciousness at first but thereafter with hot confidence, had all the acrobatic razzmatazz one could ask for, and a combustible sexuality to boot.

In the traditional department, Jose Vences’ Ballet Folklorico del Pacifico exerted welcome style, flair and presence, swirling in gorgeous costumes.

But when it came to the avant-garde effort, the various practitioners showed strain. Monica Drake’s “Unspoken,” for instance, contradicted itself in many ways. After sending somewhat comic messages (through a corps dressed in operating-room masks and gowns) Drake--the coma patient who rises for some muscular posing and body contractions--kept shouting, “Don’t pull the plug, I’m not dead.”

Neither did Guevara’s serious endeavors develop beyond melodrama, although as an extravagantly handsome figure in faux painted-on unitard, his mournful solo, “Los Amo,” had a decided pop potency.

Only Raul Butron, who shrewdly chose Xenakis’ momentous “Pitho Phrakta” for his “Sanctuary,” opened new vistas--conjuring that ever-elusive sense of emotional conundrum not reducible to a cliche.