Dance, Music Reviews : Engaging Set From Rudy Perez, LULA

Once upon a time, Rudy Perez played at the precipice, that place where, as a performance artist, he regularly uncovered the spiritual dangers of existence and held audiences in rapt attention all the while.

Saturday at the L.A. Photography Center, the oft-awarded choreographer unveiled his latest effort, “Crossover Acts,” a collaboration with the band LULA, and the results could hardly have been more free-wheeling or exuberant.

One might conclude--by way of explanation--that life gets more comfortable and the stakes less risky. Or that when an artist leaves the stage and creates for others, the process loses its primacy.

Whatever the case, “Crossover Acts,” performed by members of Perez’s group and the Pacific Dance Ensemble, is a perfectly engaging exercise.

For starters, movement in a studio setting under full bright lights and with no theatrical options is always interesting--it strips away illusion and shows, up close, every quiver, every reflex.

The downside, of course, is that illusion, which Perez can manipulate with such mastery, is off the list here. But the situation, a space designed for the current photo show, lends itself to the choreographer’s powers of social scrutiny.

Smart-looking women in short black dresses and low-heeled pumps wander into the gallery, striking stances before the photographs. Their expression is bemused. Then others, wearing black workout togs, interpose themselves. Soon, all begin to step in symmetry, break apart, pick up briefly as duos or trios.

Throughout all this “Simon Says” gallery play, Jami Lula and his instrumentalists and vocalists--discreetly positioned out of sight behind a panel hung with photos--provide rhythms, incantations and all manner of obbligatos.

There is a casual, even improvisatory, feeling to the piece; sometimes performers become observers. But always a whimsical attitude prevails, be it an episode of dueling chairs or adagio partnering.

The high point of the evening musically came with a crescendo of low, roaring grunt-laughs that culminated in a countervocal of the National Anthem and “The Lord’s Prayer.” Here, too, was a climactic outburst of movement.

LULA also earned top marks for an extended blues riff of exceptional virtuosity, although the choreography merely wound down at this juncture.