Dance Review : Mehmet Sander Troupe Defies Gravity

Choreographer Mehmet Sander continued his disturbing explorations of physically demanding movement-tasks within a confined environment in “Controlled Space/Infinite Space,” which received its premiere Friday at Schoenberg Hall, UCLA.

The laboratory or “controlled” space, in this case, was an open cube tilted at a 45-degree angle so that it rested on one of its edges. The two sides extending up from the bottom were made of solid wood; the other two sides were defined by parallel open bars, somewhat like a jungle gym.

At the start, the six members of the company--Sander, Lucianne Aquino, Scott Abraham, Leanne Lacazotte, Alan Panovich and Diane Takamine--bounded through the cube in individual ways, some hurtling themselves hard against the sides as they did so.

In rigorously defined sequences, however, they soon responded with militaristic obedience to each other’s instructions, sometimes calling themselves merely “A,” “B,” “C” and so on.

They piled up in crunches at the bottom of the cube. They slammed against the walls. They crashed into each other, eliciting gasps from the audience, especially as the sound of bodies smacking bodies was amplified. But even without that, the observer’s nervous system was likely to register the impact and the risk.

Sander has said that his dances are not dangerous if a proper mind-over-body concentration is achieved. For at least one person, however, that conclusion seems debatable and unproved, especially as to any long-term consequences.

Eventually, the work ended in an image of precariously stable accommodation, even triumph, over gravity and confinement as the dancers balanced along the outside angles of the cube.

Almost all the five other (previously reviewed) pieces on the program ended in a similarly liberating, if transitory, image. Sander has also reworked his last year’s less aggressive “Pole.” After a series of shared gymnastic tasks, Panovich balanced on the end of an aluminum pole rotated slowly by Sander and Aquino. It was a surprisingly lyrical close.