DANCE REVIEW : Saxes, Music and Monologues at Santa Monica’s Highways

Bare-chested over kilts, David Dorfman slogs onto the stage of Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica with the identically dressed Dan Froot slung over his back. Both of them clutch saxophones and both play--sometimes in the unlikeliest positions, often despite the attempts of the other to interrupt.

The questions of who gets to solo and who does the lifting prove central to this wise and funny music-and-dance collaboration, “Horn,” introduced to local audiences on an uneven, talk-dominated Dorfman/Froot program Sunday. Indeed, shared weight along with shared saxes define a volatile relationship here--with fingering one another’s instruments emerging as a sly metaphor for intimacy.

Mostly, however, the performers appear separately. Froot mixes vocal and woodwind effects with spectacular breath control in “Loop.” He then layers spoken AIDS data and music in “Closer,” fusing them in rhythmic structures that frame both storytelling passages and a desperate run-till-you-drop sequence.

Unfortunately, Dorfman’s showpieces mostly squander the impact of effective opening images with rambling and self-consciously literary palaver, their use of movement no more than an adjunct to stand-up-Expressionist monologues. Sports motion occurs in each, notably the repeated tackling assaults that punctuate an increasingly fearful and disoriented narrative in “Sleep Story.”

“Dayenu” features contrasts between slow, slumping movement across the stage and a more flailing, compulsive style of locomotion--but, again, speech tells us the most about the dread and dislocation depicted here.

“Out of Season or Eating Pizza While Watching Raging Bull” has the least movement interest but a wider range of emotional states, including Dorfman’s deliberately transparent attempts at audience manipulation (“I care about you”). His parody of other excesses of confessional performance art ends in a shower of plastic golf balls hurled at him first by Froot and then by nearly everyone in the audience.

We’ve all occasionally wanted to throw something at an insufferably self-enchanted performer. But only Dorfman dares give vent to the audience’s wildest impulses as well as his own. Clearly a man to watch.

Locally based dancer-choreographer Mehmet Sander appeared Sunday as a guest in “Sleep Stories.” Dorfman’s full, New York-based company will perform at Sushi in San Diego, Thursday through Saturday.