Off-Stage Drama Over Dance Ensemble : Education: A student whose original piece was banned at her Carson high school finds an audience at El Camino College.

A teen-age choreographer will finally get the chance to present in public a dance that a high school principal banned from a school dance concert, sparking a controversy over free expression.

Choreographer Desiree Roble, 17, and three other students from the California Academy of Mathematics and Science in Carson will perform Roble’s piece this weekend during a dance concert at El Camino College in Torrance. The students had been looking for a venue since their number was dropped from a March 25 performance at the high school before parents.

Principal Kathleen Clark ordered the piece canceled after seeing the dance for the first time earlier in the day during a performance for students and several guests. She said later that the dance was “inflammatory and totally inappropriate” and that it violated students’ privacy.

The 11-minute piece, titled “In Search . . . My Journey,” combines narration with movements expressing isolation and rage. The dancers are accompanied by a montage of modern instrumental music.

Roble, an 11th-grader from Hawthorne, said the piece draws from many experiences that have left her afraid and angry. “I can’t see justification for this dance to be censored,” she said.

Roble’s dance teacher at the high school, Ming Ng, also said the principal’s decision amounted to censorship.

The dance is performed by two boys and two girls, who interact through movement, much of it confrontational. At several points, a boy makes thrusting and striking gestures over one of the girls, who falls to the floor and resists.

The narration includes cries of protest and calls for help.

Some students laughed, cheered or whooped during the morning performance at the high school. The audience applauded warmly at the conclusion.

Principal Clark summoned the performers to her office and told them that the piece would not be performed before parents at the annual public recital for the high school’s dance program.

She said in an interview that she objected to the dance because it alluded to a violent act that may have actually taken place involving students. As a result, some parents might become angry or upset if they saw it, she said.

Roble, five other students and a dancer’s parent then complained to the Long Beach school board, which oversees the Carson academy. The school draws students from Long Beach and seven other area school systems.

Board members referred the issue to staff, which is still trying to sort out the matter, said Helen Z. Hansen, superintendent of the district’s high schools.

Last week, however, the students won a reprieve from an unexpected source.

Sharon Collins-Heads, a dance instructor at Los Angeles Southwest College, invited the students to fill in for another group at this weekend’s “Dance Jam ‘94,” a concert featuring dancers from five area community colleges.

The concert is at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the South Bay Center for the Arts on the El Camino campus, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance.