DANCE REVIEWS : Life As a Contact Sport in Marshall’s ‘Contenders’

Modern-dance choreographers from Alwin Nikolais to Lula Washington have created pieces about the dancer-as-athlete, but Susan Marshall takes a broader view of the subject. In “Contenders,” which had its Los Angeles premiere Friday as part of a four-part Marshall program in Royce Hall, UCLA, this 33-year-old, New-York based artist shows life itself as a contact sport.

Against net walls and under stadium lights, her company lines up, waiting for the gun. We hear rink music and a cheering crowd and, for a while, we see Marshall isolating and heightening (often through repetition) motions familiar from Olympic competition: the swimmers’ crouch at the edge of the pool, the winner’s arm thrown high in triumph.

Soon, however, the movement loops focus on people pushing themselves to extremes, coping with failure, forming relationships. It’s backstage at Barcelona and more, with displays of jock narcissism and a mixed-doubles sex match added for comic relief.

In one remarkable duet, Jeff Lepore pedals rapidly, feet in the air, held upside down by Eileen Thomas. Sustained way, way beyond mere novelty, this image juxtaposes male achievement and female support, in the process literally upending conventional gender roles in dance (has any choreography anywhere depended this much on a women’s prowess at lifting her male partner?).

Originally danced by Marshall’s full, eight-member company, “Contenders” appeared Friday in a reduction for seven dancers--but not so drastically shortened as the video version shown on PBS’ “Alive From Off Center” series in 1991, the year after its premiere. Ceaselessly inventive and gloriously unpredictable, it easily outclassed the other new piece on the program, “Untitled (detail), 1992.”

Here, Marshall contrasted close-up, fragmentary video impressions of a dance performance with the flowing onstage reality--the screen and stage experiences growing increasingly apart. Beyond this commentary on dance-for-camera (perhaps Marshall’s response to what befell “Contenders” on PBS), she explored an intimate, lyrical/gymnastic duet for Thomas and Andrew Boynton in relation to swirling, swooping passages for Heidi Michel,, Andre Shoals and Scot Willingham.

Though always lively and adroit, “Untitled (detail), 1992” never really drew its components and observations together. Even the sensual pas de deux seemed redundant on a program offering the multiple romantic interludes of “Contenders” as well as two duets familiar to Southland audiences:

In “Arms” (1984), Marshall used everyday movements for the upper limbs to define a relationship. The need for closeness and the need for freedom clashed and then fused here in a dance with no steps but plenty of insight into essential statements of feeling.

In “Kiss” (1987), aerial harnesses around their waists allowed Lepore and Thomas literally to fly to one another, spiral upward in an embrace, hover off the floor and generally behave as if love had given them wings.

Like “Arms” and “Contenders,” the work developed maximum variety and eloquence from a deliberately limited movement vocabulary, confirming Marshall’s deep intelligence and refined sense of craft.